The DuCaine Legacy
by solar-sun
Summary: Things can change in six years. Nosedive who is now 22 his having a hard time dealing with the changes with himself and the team. Yes this is darker then the original Please R&R.
1. Prologe

Yes! Remake power will be yours as well! Welcome to my rewrite for the DuCaine Legacy, my first finished story on . A few things will change of course in this rewrite (hopefully for the better). Anyway on to the new and improved Mighty Ducks story!

The one and only Disclaimer: I will not and do not claim The Mighty Ducks movies, Disney, the hockey team, the cartoon, any comic books made of it, any action figures, or any cosplayers as my own idea. I was a fan of the animated series before it even premiered on Saturday TV (thanks to Disney Adventures. I don't very much like the movies though). This story is my own brain child though, passed down from generation to generation to me from me (ok...i'm a bit nuts now) and if Miya shows up in the series she's an original character created by me. I didn't kidnap anyone from Disney to make her up. I've been doing fan fictions since I can remember! (It's true, I think my first true fan fictions where Chip and Dale rescue rangers). If you try and sue me (that means you Disney and your lawyers or the hockey team) all you'll get is some student loan bills. I'm not being paid to write this! I love writing fan fictions! Especially when they've been dropped by a company poke poke Disney to keep the fandom alive! grumbles Never thinks of the fans they may be loosing...nope...

Anyway on to the story:

_A story was told long ago, of their one hero on Puckworld._

_Of how a single man changed the face of an ongoing war that had lasted for so long nobody could remember when it had started._

_Every generation heard of his heroic tale._

_Every generation held him up to be god like._

_So when their mortal enemies, the Saurian's attacked again the citizens of Puckworld looked for their hero but nobody stepped forward._

_But as a whole unite; with the help of one team of ducks, they drove all the Saurians off of Puckworld._

_On to Earth._

_It's been six years._

The DuCaine Legacy

By Candy aka solarsun

Prologue

A lot can change in six years. Dive knew that out of the most of the ducks. Turning his head looking at his rear view mirror he took a deep breath readjusting it, seeing his right eye staring back at him. He was twenty-two now, had been sixteen when they hand landed on the blue planet. Six years and the small private war that they had been fighting with Dragonuas had grown considerably.

It wasn't just Anaheim anymore under attack. Dragonuas had used the fact he looked like a twisted version of the cartoon devil to start recruiting humans to his army. That was about four years ago. Because the United States had laws that anyone could worship anything they pleased Dragonuas used that to create a cult like following that would do anything he ordered. It was mass chaos in Anaheim for a few months after the saurian had gotten that idea. With marshal law and the ducks help his human army had been cut in half and most of them had fled away from California. The police where still looking for a lot of them. When some where found nobody would speak about Dragonuas. It grew so damn annoying.

Dragonuas also disappeared after all that, rumors and reports had him everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. It was assumed that after marshal law Dragonuas, Siege, Chameleon, and Wreath left the ship and also fled somewhere else. They had found the ship not to long after it all and it had looked to be abandoned. Tanya even had hacked into their computer to see when the last log entry had been but it turned out that the Saurians had wiped the hard drive before fleeing. Probably copied it to something and took it with them. All Tanya could tell them was that it had been wiped during the mass chaos months in Anaheim but she couldn't give an exact date.

Sure they had fought against Wreath, Siege, and Chameleon since then. But it was only usually a few minutes before those human recruits would crowd the place and they would have to retreat. Once for a second, Nosedive even thought he had seen Dragonuas's shadow on a wall where they where battling but the saurian seemed to stay out of site more then ever now.

The team was much different now to say the least. At the beginning of everything nobody but Duke really had a handicap (his eye) though he fought well enough where you wouldn't think there would be any problem. But with a war do come injuries and fatalities. That's what war is. And with war come scarifies. The first sacrifice that they truly had to make was the hockey team. After everything had settled in Ahaheim after marshal law Wildwing gave Phil the news. With Dragonuas now really trying to destroy and conquer Earth they couldn't afford to be lollygagging around playing hockey. So the team name was sold and since they didn't have the money to pay the bills for the ring and their headquarters they had to sell that too. Nosedive had just turned nineteen during all that. Not much of a birthday that year, or the year before that to say the least...hell even the year after that sucked and really every year since his seventeenth birthday. I guess that was his big sacrifice; he never did get to have a normal teenage life. That and the fact that during marshal law Mookie and Thrash where killed. His only two human friends on Earth died when the saurians attacked their comic shop to get back at them...at him. Nosedive hated himself for quite a while after that...because their deaths where a direct cause of him. He still hadn't forgiven himself for not being there soon enough. He had another sacrifice to make down the road though, one he still hasn't gotten over at all.

During a battle in New York Grin, trying to save a bunch of children at a park during an attack by Dragonuas's human army lost his eye site. Both eyes. That was his main sacrifice during this war. He had jumped in front of them as a bomb of sorts went off, a flash grenade, burning his retinas instantly. Not much else on him was damaged. Being who he was and how big he could handle that exposing at the distance it was to the children, but the children wouldn't have. Tanya went right away making something to help Grin after she had informed them there would be no way she could fix the damage. Actually the scientist with the help of a small following of scientists she had now helping her, to fight the war of course, built a set of goggles that she could hardwire into Grins brain. Although Grin objected to the machine in the beginning Tanya finally talked him into doing the surgery saying though he was training his hardest to fight with just feeling and hearing, they needed him to be able to see.

The goggles worked although Grin lost all true color sensory and all the goggles could do was show the big duck outlines of heat. It was better then nothing. Tanya is still working on a better device for Grin, one that would mimic or even be an improvement to their real eyes. Something a bit smaller too. The goggles he wears look a lot like a Virtual Gameboy (if you know what that looks like). If you don't know what they look like, it's big and heavy, not to mention ugly. Grin was never a vain one but when he actually saw what the goggles looked like, Nosedive thought he saw Grin wince a little.

Tanya's sacrifice was her left hand. Lost it while trying to keep a set of elevator doors open at a building near Miami so people could flee before the elevator fell. She lost it before Grin lost his eye sight. Joking, she would said that she didn't even need that hand and when she got around to building a better one she'd be able to hack into a mainframe without even twitting a finger. And she did make herself a biotical hand. One that could jack into any computer, and she had been right. Now a days Tanya doesn't have to type to hack into something. She connected her arm to a sensor in her brain she had installed that would turn her thoughts into data and send it directly to the computer it was jacked into. She's in the middle of upgrading it now to be able to jack into computers and servers wirelessly. Tanya also put a kick ass gun on her new left hand so she was always armed...so to speak. Nosedive made jokes about that for a few months after the whole incident. He felt it gave Tanya hope that they would make it out of this war alive at least, and with their humor intact. She had thanked him one day not to long after, for being himself while everything was going on.

Now Mal-mal. She seemed normal enough if you looked at her now. But during an attack in Dallas she had gotten severely burned on the right side of her face and upper shoulders. The duck spent a lot of time in the hospitals after that. Lost feeling in some of her fingers as well, not to mention the big giant bald spot she now had. Tanya, again, helped her by creating skin graphs for her so her body would at least heal. Then she went in and had a lot of the scar tissue lazored down so her skin was a bit back to normal. Though Tanya tried, Mallory could not regrow hair or feathers there and now ends up using a wig and with Tanya's help again, creating a material that looks like her feathers and sticks right on her bare skin. With a few pats of her hand you can barely tell she's got a giant bald spot anymore. Dive still pokes fun at her about it, calling her an old hag or the crazy wig woman. He doesn't do it as much to hurt her as to lighting the mood. And she still beats him for it, though more so trying to relive the past and how things had been. After their fights are done they just sit and laugh. Nothing hurt, nothing gained.

Well besides Mal-mal's pride...o and his shoulders...that hurts too.

Then there was Duke. Out of them five he came out almost unscathed, minus a few new scratches to his collection and bumps. What he sacrificed was his hope. After Mallory had gotten severely burned Duke lost it blaming himself for the injury. It wasn't long after that that Grin told the team that Duke was in love with Mallory. Saying that he had known about this before the whole change in the war had begun. That's why he had taken it so hard. Actually it seemed that Duke had taken it harder then Mallory in some cases. The red headed duck, before she had gone into her skin graph surgery, had talked to Duke privately trying to tell him it wasn't his fault it had happened and that she knew about his feelings and if everything ended up ok in the end of the war that she would like to start a relationship with him (since they where so busy now to even try to start a relationship like that, not to mention the added fear it would cause during battles). Duke lost it again, blaming himself and ran off.

Nobodies heard from him sense.

Sure they still hear rumors about him fighting against Dragonuas's army alone somewhere, usually far away from where the ducks are stationed, but Nosedive hasn't seen him since he tore out of that hospital. He had been standing by the door of Mallary's room when that had happened. Sometimes Nosedive wonders if their "tips" from the now established tip line weren't from Duke. More then likely one of them probably was but all the ducks knew that Duke, when he didn't want to be found, couldn't be, and when he finally came to terms with what was going on and what had happened to Mallory he'd be back. Duke just needed some time. And as long as he was still on their side fighting Dragonuas, the team was willing to give it to him. It wasn't like he couldn't defend himself.

Then...then there was Wildwing. That was the biggest sacrifice of all. No. It's not what you're thinking...well not quite. Actually the team wasn't quite sure of what happened to Wildwing. It was during that battle where Dive had saw a shadow that could be Dragonuas on the wall. Wildwing pushed through the onslaught of humans and ran after it.

He never came back. That was three years ago.

It wasn't like they found a dead body of his brother, so Nosedive couldn't properly morn his loss, their teams' loss. It was their second team leader that had disappeared. A second time someone else would have to step forward and try and lead the team. A second time Dive had secretly swore under his breath for revenge. Sure Canard and he didn't get along all that great but growing up he had looked up to the one duck. It was like loosing Canard all over again when they lost Wildwing.

All they actually found of Wildwings was the mask and his communicator, which held a homing beckon so there was no way they would find him or his body easily. So sometimes in a fleeing moment of hope Nosedive thinks Wildwing is still out there somewhere lost, in need of them.

That was Nosedive's ultimate sacrifice of this war. He'd lost all of his true family, stranded on an alien planet, with a growing war around them. By loosing his brother, Dive felt he had lost a part of himself for good. He hadn't been the same after that. He wasn't the same. At times he had to force the jokes out so hope wasn't totally lost. What was left of the team, and their followers now, seemed to look toward him for guidance. Maybe it was because Wildwing had been his brother, Canard being Wildwing's best friend, or the fact Duke ran off, and Grin denied the position when Tanya asked him later on. Then Mallory had been asked by Grin and Tanya to wear the mask but she swore at it saying it was just bad luck. Anyone who wore the mask would die. Tanya then said after Mallory had denied it later that she wasn't good with giving orders, then saying that Wildwing HAD been the last one to wear it that Dive should at least keep it. But the fact was it now set on the floor in the back seat of his human made car, probably under a pile of paper and cans. He didn't want to be leader. Nobody asked him to be leader. He had been after all just a kid when this whole war started, the jokester, the one who would put a lighter spin on things.

But Dive knew that even if he objected, like he had with the mask (and look where it set now) that it would fall on deaf ears (at least nobody lost that during their fights yet). That he was the leader and he had four people to worry about (five if you counted Duke who was still somewhere off by himself or six if you wanted to believe Wildwing was still alive somewhere) and their small army. The position of leader was a nearly crushing weight on Dive. He had never been one to want to bear it.

Now here he was, popping Prozac pills, trying to keep his road rage down at the humans who didn't seem to realize what the hell was going on around them, on their own damn planet no less! His head hurt, and nobody on the team KNEW all this. Around them he tried to be the lovable Nosedive they all looked at him and expected him to be. Because they all NEEDED that Nosedive. It didn't matter what he needed. He was leader now, and the leader always does what's best for the group. Look at Wildwing and Canard. They left the mask so the leader could use it, he was sure of that. And the way things where going Nosedive feared he'd leave the mask next. After all his sacrifice hadn't been nearly as bad as Grins, Mallory's, or Tanya's. Nosedive felt he was along the same level as Duke at least, that he knew of. A leader was expected to sacrifice everything. Nosedive didn't have anything else left to sacrifice to this war. He'd lost everything else, why not his life? His hope? His identity while they where at it. Sometimes Nosedive wondered if Drake DuCaine felt like this during the first war. Was it as near crushing weight to him or did Dive just suck being a leader? It didn't matter anyway anymore. The youngest duck had accepted that he'd probably die like the other two in this war. As long as in is final moments he could take revenge for his brother and Canard he could die in peace.

Things had changed to say the least. Nosedive just wished every night on that first star that it had been GOOD change. Not this hell hole that he was stuck with for a life.

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(Authors notes)

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I made a sorta bookcover thingy for the new rewrite too! It's at:. It's my first attempt at drawing Nosedive in a few years. I hope it's ok. I know I'm not as great as Dolphy but I try. Ok so it's shaped more like a CD cover, so sue me :P.

cough Wow. When I thought about rewriting my first finished story on I never thought it would be so...dark. So depressive. I didn't think it would be at all, not until the second paragraph I realized where exactly this story was heading. I figured I'd write the original story but better and now here I am writing a story where Nosedive is 22 and Wildwing might very well be dead.

I guess the DuCaine Legacy grew up a bit. I didn't realize how much my writing had changed either in four years.

First of all I want to apologies to all who did like my first fan fiction. I will keep it up on for you guys to read renaming it something like "The DuCaine legacy first write" or something like that. I fear that after reading my first trial of this story it was very much rushed and not very well done. Not to mention how horrible at spelling I was then. Though I still kind of suck at it now. Though for all you readers of the DuCaine legacy original it was suppose to be a bit darker then it turned out to be with Miya being rapped and all but like I said I didn't take the time or effort to make it a truly great story.

Yes I do think Miya will be in this story as well. Though as is and the title and everything I could very well leave her out and the title of the series would fit. I'm still slightly debating on it. If you guys commented one way or the other in your reviews would help me a lot in my decision.

Yes Nosedive is all Angst and depressive. Come on, don't you just want to cuddle him and tell him everything is gonna be ok?! It's a 360 (not the console silly) from the way he was in the original TDL. I'd be all angst if my brother disappeared/died too!

This will be PG-13/Older Teen/Teen (what ever uses for ratings) and could very well go into R later if he STAYS super depressive/angst (not because of sex or anything, I don't write that stuff). So I warn you now. You can tell from the first chapter it's all dark and moody. I've been wanting to write a dark and moody mighty ducks story for a while too .

And don't ask me if Prozac works for alien ducks, we'll just assume it does or he's just taking it wink wink. Since Tanya doesn't know about the prescription after all she can't be the one to make it.

Anyway I hope you like the rewrite. There should be more down the road. Please leave a review before you go (since this is so drastically different then the first PLEASE leave a review on what you think if it's bad or better) and as always thanks for your time for reading one of my stories! (you guys rock!)


	2. Chapter 1: Pain

_**Satan, you know where I lie  
Gently I go into that good night**_

The DuCaine Legacy

By Candy aka solarsun

Chapter 1: Pain

For the first time in a month, it was a good dream. A nice dream of back when he could goof off and hang with his two pals Mookie and Thrash. They had been smiling and laughing talking about one of the many comic books that they where reading at the moment, enjoying being young on a carefree summer afternoon around Anaheim. Then the door swung open and Wildwing, gold mask and everything, walked in smiling at him, telling him that Phill had some big thing planned and that if he didn't leave with him now they wouldn't make it in time.

It was almost like Wildwing was standing right there. It felt so real. Mookie and Thrash too. Their smiling faces behind those piercing and tattoos telling him that they'd be there when he got back.

..but that was a lie, wasn't it? They had lied that day way back when. Wing had lied too, when he ran after the shadow. Why did they have to lie to him?! He wasn't a kid anymore.

Tossing and turning Nosedive awoke from his dream, partially from the fact his dream was going south, and partially from the communicator beeping on his night stand. Sitting up, Dive reached over picking it up and opening it, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes seeing Tanya there looking all worried.

"Yo, what's up Tanny?" He mumbled calling her his old pet name he had given her so long ago.

"There's an attack on a weapons shop down on main." She said hurried, her head turned, probably doing something else. Nosedive knew she probably was watching the attack, though it made him wonder how Tanya was there already.

"I'll be right there," He yawned slipping out of his bed and walking over to the bathroom, turning on the light. Dive's PJ's consisted of boxers and a loose fitting tank top.

Looking up at the clock it was about Two am. One hand opened his cabinet, the other turning on the cold water. Pulling out his prescription he dug a pill out of the thin bottle and tossed it in his beak, then bending down slurping the water up from the faucet swallowing it all. Sighing, squeezing his eyes shut, Dive took both his hands and splashed his face a few times with the water trying to wake himself up...

...and also to try and hide the fact he had been crying in his sleep. Sometimes he just wished that his dreams would stick to nightmares. At least those he could blow off a bit more then his happy ones. The happy ones reminded him of what he had lost. Dive was reminded every day of what he had lost, he didn't need some damn dream reminding him in his sleep as well.

Turning he went to quickly dress and grab his gun.

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"Shit!" Nosedive yelled taking cover behind a smoldering car. Who the hell would sell grenades at a NORMAL weapons shop?! They couldn't even get close! Every time someone would try and charge, one of the humans would just throw a grenade out from the store. So there had to be a better way.

"..The sewer!" Mallory yelled toward him. "I'm sure there is some sorta drain under that building we can use!"

Nosedive nodded looking ahead seeing a manhole not to far from where he was standing. Quickly without saying anything else he took off toward it, Mallory instantly understanding and gave him cover.

Grin was already there, prying the manhole open for him and Dive jumped down, one of his hands grabbing onto an old ladder bar stopping him from falling completely.

Reaching in his pocket, he pulled out a small flashlight and shinned it down to see where the floor was. It was only three feet below him so he just dropped down, shinning the light around trying to get some sense as where to head. His team above couldn't handle much more of that fire power. Most of the cars they had been using for shields where blown up.

That's when his communicator beeped. Reaching down he opened it seeing Tanya.

"..Uploading the map of the sewer layout in this area now..." She mumbled as his communicator beeped again, a green map taking up most of the screen now. There was a flashing area that was him and a star of where he should be heading.

"Thanks Tanny." Dive said shining his flashlight in the correct direction.

"..I'll have Mallory come with you," Tanya started.

"Don't." Nosedive muttered. "You guys need all the firepower you can get up there...besides," He took a deep breath forcing a laugh out. "I don't think Mal-mal could fit down the manhole. She's been gaining a few extra pounds as of late."

"I'm going to kill him!" He over heard on Tanya's communicator. "If he doesn't die doing a stupid stunt like that, I'm going to kill him when he returns!"

Nosedive just shook his head and quickly ran down the sewer, trying to ignore the smell and how slippery it was under his feet.

Tanya looked up from her communicator worried at Mallory and shrugged. If Nosedive thought he could handle it on his one, why was she to complain?

"Keep them distracted!" Tanya then yelled over the police cars that where now blaring behind them. Things blowing up around a gun shop got noticed pretty easily. That and she had called them after the ducks. They needed all the help they could get with these idiots.

Pointing her left hand out it began to move and take the form of a plasma gun, glowing as she willed it to fire, her other hand crossing over her chest, trying to steady it as it powered up...

Hoping up, slowly Dive pulled himself out of the sewer, into a small back room of the weapons shop. Nobody had yet noticed that he had disappeared from the way they where talking outside the door. It seemed that Tanya had used her kick ass gun, blowing a hole in the side of the building. He could hear hurried footsteps outside the door.

Hoping up, he pulled his gun back out and walked over the door, cracking it up to see what they where truly up against. There where three people he could see, and one of them had two grenades in his hands. He'd have to shoot to kill with that one, the other two though both had guns, and where firing them. He'd have to wait till at least one of them was reloading.

Actually both of the men stopped at the same time, giving Dive a perfect window. Quickly he pulled down an odd propane tank next to him and kicked it out of the door, coming in behind it, shooting the one with grenades in his hands, squarely between the eyes. The other two where scrambling away trying to take cover wondering what the hell had just happened.

Smirking he sent the other two to hell with their friend. Turning his head he noticed two very angrily men running toward Dive. Quickly picking up one of the grenades he pulled the pin out with his beak and tossed it in front of him, quickly turning around and back into the door, diving into the grate and running for dear life. With that propane tank there, that store front was bound to explode!

"Tanny, Mal-mal, Grin get everyone AWAY from the store front!" Dive yelled into his communicator. Quickly he jumped up the ladder that he had came down with and just as he was about to peak his head above the ground, the whole store exploded! Dive ended up falling back into the sewer, ruining his good jacket, pants, and everything he really was wearing.

"..Shit..." Dive hissed shaking his arms off and slowly making his way back up to see the damage he had caused.

The store was gone...and so were half of the buildings next to it.

"..Woops..." Dive blinked sitting on the street, legs still hanging in the manhole.

"Woops?! WOOPS?!" He heard Mallory's voice behind him yelling, and then felt a good kick between his shoulder blades as he fell back into the manhole again. "That'll teach you...calling me fat..." She hissed turning away walking past Tanya who just sighed shaking her head as Nosedive came out of the manhole for a second time. She would have offered a hand...but...well he reaked all the way over where she was standing.

He was laughing at least.

"Miss Tanya?" A police officer called to her. Turning she began to walk over toward the captain to explain what had exactly happened. Of course every big city in the United States knew of Dragonuas now and most of them where fully cooperative with them in the hunt for him. None of them wanted the saurian overlord taking over their city.

Sighing Dive got up completely and waved at the police, who had seen him fall and waved back. He need a shower, a new jacket, pants, hell he needed something new of everything he was wearing at that moment. Turning his head he saw Tanya talking with the police and decided to let her deal with them. Right now he just wanted to go shower and sleep. Nothing else he really felt like doing.

Maybe when he woke up later something would inspire him, but for right now all he could think about was the looks the humans gave him before his bullet landed on target, killing them instantly.

He wished things didn't have to be this way. Out of all of the ducks in the beginning, he had been the one to like them first. Now he was killing them, most of them where probably innocent, just lead astray.

Not only was he scarred up, mentally and physical, he had innocent human blood on his hands. And it didn't seem to want to wash away very easily. Probably because he wasn't scrubbing it very hard.

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Most of the ducks had day jobs, that of course had special leeway that if there was attack they could leave pretty easily. Tanya of course was a visiting scientist at a local laboratory, which was an easy job for her to get. Grin was doing an inner peace seminar at this city. Mallory worked as a self defense coach at a local YMCA. He, well he didn't get the glamorous jobs like they did. It might because unless he was around the team he didn't try to be cheerful anymore. Most people didn't want a grumpy alien duck working for them.

So he was the head of security for some big company, which Dive really didn't even know the name of. There where offices in every big city too so travel was easy for him. Plus he had an apartment waiting for him in every city at least.

At times he wished he could leave this war and run off. But even when Duke left Dive was sure he was still fighting for them somewhere else. Dive just wanted to run away, from everything.

Sometimes he felt like he was falling.

Trying to grab something, anything.

At times when the war had started he'd feel that way

But Wing had always been there to catch him.

Nosedive walked out of the shower and rubbed one of his eyes with the back of his hand.

Tears began to welt up in his eyes again. Walking over to his couch he sat on it, hunched over, his face buried in his hands as much as they could be as sobs rocked through is body.

Why the hell was he still doing this?!

Dive didn't quite understand himself anymore. The man staring back at him in a mirror was a far cry from the teenager smiling happily on the one photograph he still had with everyone on his dresser. The man in the mirror was a very bitter, depressed, hopeless duck. That always seemed to have rings under his eyes, probably due to the fact he could never sleep. The Prozac didn't seem to be helping at all, probably a fact that he was a duck, and not a human.

..All he wanted was for things to be the same again before the saurians, on Puckworld. Sure his parents had their problems there but at least they where there for him!

Rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands he took a deep breath.

Nobody was here for him anymore. So why was he still trying to win this war? Probably to try and grasp at something the old Dive would do in a heart beat. Trying to keep, maybe just a tiny fraction, of himself as he used to be.

Turning his head he reached out and picked up a picture of Wildwing and himself, after a game taken by one of their old fans who had sent it to them after the team had been sold. Before everything changed.

Taking a deep breath he set it back down. His true reason for still fighting was obvious.

Revenge.

Dragonuas would pay with his life for the hell he had caused. Where all saurian's like this? Did they always try and take over Puckworld? Compared to Earth, his home planet was cold, and frozen. Earth was a much better place to try and take over, and Dive figured after the saurian saw how different the two planets where that he'd try and take over Earth anyway before he'd try and take over Puckworld again. If the saurian would ever try and take over Puckworld again...that's if everything ended up back and they all where dead.

At least he would get his revenge and he'd get revenge for Canard as well. That's what his brother was trying to do after all, that and protect the team. He had died for them.

Shit not again...

Reaching up he quickly rubbed the tears away. Why the hell was he crying at the drop of a coin lately?

Taking a deep breath Nosedive turned his head to see the sun rise. Maybe he should try and go back to sleep. When he woke up he could at least go shopping. That would take his mind off of things. Besides he needed a new coat from what had happened during the battle a few hours ago.

Yawning he stood up and headed back into his room, glancing at the picture on his dresser for a moment. Then crawling back into bed. Maybe he would dream a nightmare. At least then he can sleep.

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Leaning on her arm, her hand picked at the keys in front of her. Mallory was looking up who had posted they would be in her class that night very slowly. Computers hadn't been her strong suit. Tanya had once offered to help her with just basic things that deal with a computer but Mallory had declined the offer at the time figuring they'd always be fighting Dragonuas like they had been and playing hockey as a semi cover. There was no need for computers in that time.

Now.

Well now she was working like a regular human, though the United States did give them money to live off of, the team that was left knew that it wouldn't be enough. They needed better weapons, better training, and better armor. Something the United States wasn't paying for, nor Mallory didn't even want them to pay for. If they paid for their weapons, and armor it would be cheap. Tanya with a bit of work at her job could come up with stuff that was ten times better and cheaper. Not to mention Tanya would then hold the patent on it and could make money selling the stuff.

Mallory knew how lucky she was to have a friend and team mate like Tanya. If it wasn't for her, Mallory would still look horribly disfigured. Though she still couldn't grow feathers or hair, Tanya had made the next best thing for her and nobody around her even knew she had a giant bald spot except for the ducks and that's how Mallory wanted it to be. She didn't need her co workers looking at her with pity every day...

...sorta like how Duke had.

Frowning, she had stopped typing and leaned back thinking about the ex-thief. It wasn't his fault at all what had happened, but he had been the closest to her when it did happen. That's how he came to blame himself. She just hoped he was ok, and fighting Dragonuas and kicking some ass.

Smirking she chuckled a bit thinking about the gray duck. Everyday she hoped he'd return to them and everything would be as normal as it could be.

"Miss Mallory?" A voice butted in. Glancing up she noticed one of the other instructors standing outside her office door. "Just making sure you where back in the land of the living." She giggled continuing to walk past her door.

Mallory smirked shaking her head. Duke would be back with them in no time, she was sure of that. It had to be that way.

Didn't he love her after all? Mallory chuckled a little. Never had she thought she'd even think those words and now here it was, and it sounded natural actually. Though Mallory wondered when Duke's feelings had grown. Shrugging she figured she'd ask him when he returned.

That was something to look forward to.

Her mind wondered to their semi-leader now, Nosedive. That was also something she'd never thought she'd see the day off, but when Wildwing disappeared everyone seemed to look toward the teenager. He was the least changed out of all of them. Maybe it was the stability he shown that they clung to.

Her eyes gazed downward thinking about the blonde goofball. She was sure that Dive didn't really want to be leader, but neither did Wildwing when he was thrown in the situation. The blonde duck hadn't yet put the mask on. She wondered absently if that meant anything or of he had just lost the mask. It didn't much matter anyway how Dragonuas was fighting as of late. It seemed it was always blatant and explosive.

Though something seemed to worry Mallory thinking about Nosedive as of late. Sure, she knew that he wasn't quite the same Dive that tagged along during their first mission, but his eyes. At times they seemed almost absent, cold, frozen. Almost pleading as he told her she looked fat, or if she screamed any louder at him that she'd wake the dead. Shaking that thought off Mallory told herself that if Dive was really in that much pain, he still had the team to talk to. They'd all listen to him. Even though he was the leader, and six years older, an adult in many aspects in the way he talked, walked, and moved, all the team tended to see him as that same sixteen year old. An odd sixteen year old that seemed to have been born with a gun in hand at how well he could shoot.

Mallory frowned looking at the time. She wasn't going to get anything done today. Standing up she walked out of her office. There were other things she could be doing anyway.

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"Breath deep," His simple words instilled a quiet and calmness that marveled the first time students. Even though the duck was ten feet tall nobody felt threatened. Nobody thought he would hurt even a fly. Most of the children would even play with the large duck while waiting for class to start. In his classroom nobody could believe that he was a crime fighter and that there was indeed some evil monster hiding somewhere wanting to take over the world.

But there was a lot Grin still had to overcome. Mainly his eyesight. Everyone in the class understood what had happened and had accepted why he wore it and what the goggles looked like but it didn't make anything better. Part of the calm big duck he wished either he could get used to being blind, or Tanya create him better eyes. He knew that he was relying too much on the scientist who was trying to help him as much as she could and as fast as she could. There were never enough thank yous for her for what she had at least done for him. What she had done for the whole team. If she could help she did. But there where some things that a scalpel and machinery couldn't fix alone.

That's where inner peace came in. If you couldn't be happy by yourself, how could you find peace with what was going on around you? Grin as of late was struggling a bit in that department but he knew it would take time before he'd accept everything as it had happened. He had to be a strong sturdy part of the team. At least for their leader who still didn't seem to be grasping it totally.

He had tried to be their leader, and in a war, not everything could be settled peacefully. Sitting and trying to find a solution to a problem sometimes was worse then not acting. That's why he denied the mask when Tanya had asked him to be their leader. The only one of them four who could fill Wildwings shoes was Nosedive, and not just because he was his younger brother but because he new how to think.

Look at early this morning. No civilians had been hurt. Dive had single handedly swayed the battle, with their help of course, and there wasn't an injury on the team. If the little man could just be a strong leader like that all the time, then they would defeat Dragonuas, and find their way home.

Home. Now that brought peace to his heart.

"Relax little one," He said kneeling down at a young child who was trying to do what was done in the class. The child seemed to look up at him.

Smiling he ruffled his hair and continued down. He'd do it again, if it was to save a single innocent life. He was getting along with what Tanya gave him well anyway.

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Rubbing her brow with her sleeve, Tanya continued to concentrate on the final upgrade on her arm. It would make wireless connections to computers, internet, phones, and a whole lot easier.

"Do you need any help?" One of her assistants asked as she quickly shook her head. All she needed was to spot weld it and it would be done. Turning and with her right hand she took a small welder that she had had brought up from the storage room. It was only a few more seconds...

Done!

Smiling Tanya gazed down at her weld and felt proud. Not only did it look nicer, she was able to get rid of a lot of the cords which meant it was smaller then before...and

...and she could use the same technology she had made for Mallory to cover the hand in synthetic feathers, so unless you knew her hand was gone, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Tanya had never been a vain duck. Duke had been more vain then her when the team had been whole. As whole as they where on Earth after loosing Canard but she wanted her bio hand to look like a real hand. When her first hand was created it was out of necessity, not for beauty. To work on future projects she would need both hands, it was a given and with the way the war was going she would have future projects to make.

Speaking of a project...

"Hey Dan! Did that part come in the mail yet?" She yelled snapping her bio hand back onto its base she had attached to her left arm so it would move and sit like a regular hand.

"..Yes it did, just now." He yelled back from somewhere behind a case. Tanya began to smile uncontrollably. If her calculations where right...which they where rarely off...

..At least she had that to look forward to.

"We need to install it!" Tanya yelled back picking up an odd tub of liquid. Moving her left hand she sighed. Synthetic feathers in its true natural form were liquid. It attaches to something and dries as feathers, the color depending on what chemicals you added to the batch. It was to hot in its natural form just to pore on Mallory's side. Tanya was still trying to correct that. So Mallory would have it directly on her bare skin, instead of a cloth.

Moving her left hand over the batch she dipped it in, feeling the connection between her arm and hand instantly warm up. Pulling it out quickly the scientist duck watched as it dried quickly...to a feathery look.

Success!

Moving her hand around she noticed how it moved naturally with the arm. Tanya would definitely have to celebrate tonight about this bragging to one of her team mates.

"Are you ready Miss Tanya to install that in that machine?" Dan then called to her.

"Yeah. Do you have the tools?"

"Their right here..."

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Cinder and ash trailed behind the beast as he moved through the hallway.

"What the hell happened to the attack this morning?!" The creature sneered at one of the humans who were now cowering in front of him.

"...the ducks somehow blew our forces up." The human almost squeaked out visibly shaking now at the creature that stood before her, smoke coming out of its large nostrils, anger flaring out of its eyes. The human hoped to god that if the creature decided to kill him, it would be at least painless.

"Fuck!" The creature turned. "It's been four fucking years since this new strategy change has happened, and what the fuck do we have to show for it?! Not a thing! Not a fucking thing." Sneering her stormed out of the one room, back into the hallway. At times he missed how big the ship had been, but he knew, and so did the other three saurians that if they where going to truly change tactics, they couldn't be trying to hide that ship anymore. It was too much of a waist of time. The ducks couldn't do anything with the ship anyway, he made sure of that.

Shaking his head he continued to walk down the hallway, toward the basement of the building. His bad mood was cramping his thought process. It was time to go let a little steam off.

After all, a war wouldn't be war without at least a prisoner to touchier and destroy.

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(Authors notes)

Yes Dragonuas has a swearing problem. :P So it seems does Nosedive. huggles her nosedive action figure she's had for many many years It's alright Nosedive! I will try and make it better...

Nosedive action figure: Can't...breath...dies

Yeah I know in the original that Miya was already in the series by this time. But things change and when I try and write well stories get longer! yay for longer stories! When the DuCaine Legacy stopped getting new chapters, it was 150kb and 15 chapters long. In only two chapters I'm at 40kb with this rewrite. I want this story to be long, with a very defined ending and maybe a sequel after it all, but that won't be a while. Look at my other long story:The Mars Saga. It's at 700+ kb and still got chapters to go! My dream is to write something that's at least 1Mb! OO. Though it might not be the mars saga and it might not be this one, but one day I will write an awesome story that takes up a megabyte!

Anyway the song that sorta inspired this all is called "Innocent" by Fuel (what's at the top of the story in italics, it's not that short though). I love this song. And it sorta is on the soundtrack for this series, if this series had a soundtrack of course. Maybe in other chapters I'll add to the "Soundtrack". Before you go please review and as always thanks for taking the time to read one of my stories.


	3. Chapter 2: Change

_**All our lives get complicated  
Search for pleasures overrated**_

The DuCaine Legacy

By Candy aka solarsun

Chapter 2: Change

"...I think we should split up for a little bit," Mallory said calmly as they all sat at Nosedive's apartment. "..Not breaking up as a team I mean, but with four of us here, we do have followers AND we could ask the government to let us be in charge of some of their solders. It wouldn't be hard to train them. That way we could cover more ground." Glancing around she leaned back in the dining room chair that she was sitting in. "After all Dragonuas may be stationed in just one spot somewhere, but his troops aren't."

Quietness filled his apartment after that comment. It made sense, but none of the ducks had ever worked against Dragonuas totally alone. There had always been another duck there. It was a comment that had been coming for a while now actually. Nosedive had wondered why it took so long for someone to even make think if it. Though he also knew the answer to that.

Nobody wanted to be alone.

"..It's probably the best idea," Nosedive spoke up. After all he was the unofficial team leader. He had thought of the idea a long time ago, but he didn't want to be alone. He feared it. There was nothing that came that was good when one was alone he found but moving from one city to another wasn't getting them anywhere, actually it was making things worse.

Dragonuas was taking over the other major cities while they where stopping him in the one. They where outnumbered.

They where staring at him now. Swallowing hard, Dive knew he had to make some smart ass comment to act like how they needed him to be. "After all we all know I could handle a city all by myself. You all just slow me down." He laughed as Mallory slapped the back of his head.

"Shut up you. I was the one who mentioned it." She hissed.

Rubbing the back of his head he chuckled.

"I was just testing you, to see how long you of the group would think of it. I was right, you ARE slow." He then grinned earning him a punch in the shoulder. "Heeeeeyyyy..."

"I thought so too." Tanya then broke in. "I figured that Mallory could go back to Anaheim and set up base there, Grin you could head to Washington D.C., I would stay here in Miami, and Dive you could head to New York. Did anyone hear from Duke yet, or a rumor?" Her eyes turned toward Mallory and settled on the woman who shook her head. It would only make sense that Duke would contact her out of them if he was going to, Dive figured.

"..We'd have the media announce this plan once established," Nosedive broke in. "So if Duke wanted to contact any of us it would be easy for him...Plus it would announce to the ugly faced saurians that we mean business and are about to kick his ass!" Dive put a grin on acting all heroic causing him to get a kick in the shin by Mallory.

"..Smart ass..." She hissed.

"Positive thinking little man?" Grin asked chuckling. Nosedive nodded rubbing his shoulder and moving his leg. Why did she have to always hit him? It didn't much matter anyway and besides it was needed.

"Ok, I guess we start planning and calling tomorrow then," Tanya said getting up. "That's if everybody agrees that is the best step."

Everyone slowly began to nod.

So this was it? Wasn't it? Nosedive thought glancing around the room. This would probably be one of the last times he'd see them all in one time. Dread and pain filled him as his stance began to waver on the subject. He didn't want to be alone.

He didn't want to die alone!

Not like his brother. Not like Canard. And before this...not like Drake DuCaine!

Caught up in his swirling thoughts he hadn't noticed everyone saying their goodnights and walking out of his apartment. Only when the echo of his door slamming did he snap back to reality.

Silence.

That's when he really did begin to waver falling to the floor...when had he eaten last?

Dive couldn't quite remember. Shit, he realized how long it had been. His hunger as of late had gone down the drain. Nothing seemed to appeal to him. Standing up slowly he walked over to the phone and looked at the small list of take out flyers he had. Nothing did seem to interest him but he knew it wasn't the time to be falling sick and grabbed the green flyer quickly dialing the number.

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"..Uh Tanya?" Mallory said in the elevator as Tanya was walking out. It was just the two women now in the apartment complex. Grin's place was two floors above Nosedives and Tanya's and hers was a floor below, right across the hall from each other.

"Yeah?" The blonde scientist turned as Mallory came out of the elevator up to her.

"..I do know that we should split up," She began sighing.

"But..." Tanya said knowing there was something the woman wanted to add to the whole situation.

"...but I don't think it would be best for Dive to be totally alone right now," Mallory added quietly. Partially she was questioning herself for worrying about the younger duck so much. But something was bothering her about the way he was acting as of late and maybe Tanya would give some insight to what was going on.

"I've gotten that feeling too," Tanya then admitted. "But I also know that if he does need help, that we can't force it on him. He's not a kid anymore and if he didn't want this he should have said something at the meeting." Then Tanya smiled touching her friends shoulder. "Besides there is a reason why I want him to go to New York. There aren't any rumors to back it up but I think Duke might be there."

"Duke?" Mallory blinked. "He could be anywhere...I meen we where just in New York..." She trailed off thinking about the gray duck wishing if in fact he had been in New York that he would have at least sent her a letter or something. One can't just go saying they do love you and then running off.

"..He's street smart," Tanya said. "And in the United States one of the toughest streets to live on is New York. Plus in a city that big someone's bound to know where Dragonuas is hiding out. Even if it's not actually in New York. So I figured that he'd go there, trying to figure out everything and at least find Dragonuas on his own."

That did make some sense. Mallory wanted to go to New York, but if indeed something was up with Dive, he needed to be there more then her. After all Duke was the one Dive had been closest too, besides Wing. When Wing had disappeared the first week or so Dive wouldn't talk to anyone but Duke. Mallory figured Nosedive really needed someone to talk to now but didn't feel comfortable enough with Tanya, Grin, or herself to open up.

"I guess that makes sense enough," Mallory then stated. "I feel a bit better about everything if he is in New York."

"Me too," Tanya stated. "Anyway you should try and get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow is a big day, for all of us and that's not including the fact Dragonuas's army might attack."

"Yeah," Mallory said unlocking her door waving goodnight to Tanya and closing it behind her.

Tanya closed the door hearing her phone ring inside. Quickly locking the door behind her she answered the phone hearing one of her engineer's voice on the other end.

"We got the part up and running is there anything you want us to do before we leave the building?" He asked.

Smiling light Tanya felt excited for what was hopefully a big break for all of them, if she could get it all to work. Human electronics was hard to configure to what she needed.

"No," She said. "You guys just go home. I'll be in in the morning to work on it with you." With that she said her goodbyes and hung up looking up at the clock. They really had put in some overtime just to get that part in. She figured it was because what she was creating was nothing any human had ever seen. This would put anyone on the team on the map. Tanya had debated wither or not she should try to build it. The machine would alter human history. After all the humans where no where near technologically advanced to even attempt to build it.

But...

It needed to be done. There was no getting around this anymore. That's why, about a year ago she began work on it, the last time they where in Miami. That's why she had told the others she would be staying. Because the sooner this thing was built the better.

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It was only Tanya and Grin left to see him off. Mallory's flight had been a few hours before his and the only reason Grin was there was because he couldn't get a flight till tomorrow or else it would have been just Tanny sending him off. It had taken about a week to get everything set up for all of them. The men they where to be in charge of where already in the cities they where flying to. Nosedive had to make a call to the main office of his job and tell them he was heading up to New York again and they just said ok. After all the company that hired him knew he would need to travel a whole lot. They hadn't said anything yet. It wasn't like he wasn't doing his job. Actually they had seen a decrease in break ins since he had started working there.

"..Well my plan is boarding now," Dive said dryly feeling dread fill him again.

"Don't forget to call everyday on the communicator, till I can fly out and set up those mini-drake 4s," Tanya laughed looking toward Grin who nodded then holding out something which Dive took looking down at it. It was a pack of gum of some sort. He'd never seen that kind before but Nosedive new that Grin had his reasons.

"...I know you have a hard time flying on human ran airplanes," Grin said. "That's an herbal gum to help settle your stomach." Nodding he slipped the gum in his top pocket for later use.

"Thanks Grin-my man!" He laughed. "Probably would have been hocking up things people around me never seen!"

Tanya just shook her head chucking.

"I'll be out there in a week," Tanya then responded. "I've got a big project I'm working on at the lab I've got to stabilize before I can even remove myself from it and work on the computers."

"It's cool Tanny, a week will give me enough time to..." A wave of dizziness all of a suddenly passed right over him as he stumbled forward a step causing both Grin and Tanya to give him puzzled looks.

"...are you ok Nosedive?" Tanya asked walking up to him and placing a hand on his forehead seeing if he had some sorta fever." There didn't seem to be any fever.

Grin had put his hands on Dive's shoulders also looking worried down at the duck.

"Little man, you seem to have lost a bit of weight..." He said watching him.

"Ahh yeah!" Dive said pulling away from them both laughing nervously. "After seeing how much Mal-gal has gained I decided to loose a bit of weight. Gotta stay fit for those women!"

Tanya wasn't quite buying it though but there wasn't anything she could really do or say at the moment to get the truth out of him.

"..Well Nosedive, if you ever do need to talk, I'm only a communicator button away, you do know that, right?" Tanya said watching him closely.

"I've always known that Tanny, but I'm fine, really." Dive laughed nervously. "Anyway I should head before they leave me and you're stuck with me for another few days." He mumbled picking up his carry on luggage and hugging them both quickly, almost running away for the two ducks, who where still slightly puzzled at what had exactly happened there.

Sighing Tanya was the first to move shaking her head. "I've got to make a few phone calls before the day is through." She said as Grin and her left the waiting area and headed out of the airport.

"I should probably keep packing," Grin said. "If you want to you can make those phone calls at my house, its closer after all."

Tanya nodded knowing what Grin was quietly asking. He didn't want to be alone on his last day in Miami, and she could make the calls she was thinking about there without any problem.

"Yeah that's fine, how about I order us something to eat when we get there," She said as they walked out of the door.

Almost jumping in his seat, Dive sighed sliding down relaxing a bit before the plane would take off. That had been a close one and they seemed to have bought the excuse well enough, at least he hoped they had. There was no need for them to be worrying about him. They had other things to worry about now.

"..Would you like something to drink?" A stewartist asked coming up next to him.

"Water," Dive mumbled pulling out the gum Grin had given him and popping one of them in his mouth. He hoped these things worked. His nerves where shot to begin with anyway. It wouldn't take much for his stomach to grow upset. In the past three days it seemed he couldn't keep anything he had eaten down, when of course he remembered that he had to eat.

Leaning on his arm he took the water from the steward and gulped it down, of course being careful not to swallow the gum. Who knew what was in these herbal things Grin gave to the team anyway. He could flip out if he actually ate it.

He began to laugh thinking of that. It wasn't a forced laugh either which slightly surprised Dive. It had been a while since he had felt the need to laugh at anything besides this pathetic mess of a team captain he was. Wildwing never seemed to be like this and he was sure he would have noticed anything if his brother had been like this in any form. Though Wildwing had always been a great leader, even if it was just a good influence for him when he had been growing up. Smart, athletic, friendly. Some of the things Dive had later on strived to be, but lost when Wildwing had disappeared.

Gulping down another drink Dive leaned back feeling sleepy and decided that he might be able to sleep on this flight which would bypass all his troubles with flying. Standing up he reached for his pillow and blanket in one of his carry on bags and laid down, curing up as little as he could, throwing the gum he had been chewing away when a steward passed by.

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Yawning he stumbled into the waiting area of the New York airport glancing around looking for any suspious activity that could be happening around him. He didn't want to walk into a terminal and just have it explode or something. With his luck, it would happen.

But nothing did happen as he grabbed his luggage and headed out of the place, calling a taxi. With in a few moments one was up next to him and the man came out helping him with his suitcases, putting them in the trunk. Opening the back of the taxi cab Dive sighed relaxing a bit closing his eyes.

"..Where to?" The man said sitting in the driver's seat looking back at him.

"362 Walten Way," Nosedive muttered thinking about where his apartment was in New York. Nodding the man turned on the meter and they where off speeding through New York. At least Dive got lucky and the cab driver knew where he was going as things became familiar.

Dive actually didn't like being in New York. Something made him wonder why Tanny hadn't sent Mal-mal to New York and not Anaheim. Though Dive figured that Tanny did that because Dive had a lot of bad memories in Anaheim, more then the others but then it made him wonder some more on why New York when he could have been sent to Washington DC where there was no real bad memories unlike New York.

It was here where they saw the shadow. It was here where Wildwing disappeared. Leaning on a hand he watched the buildings and people go by but Dive also understood that there where reasons for the cities Tanny sent them and probably why she was staying in Miami.

Plus out of the towns New York was most like Puckworld, they had a defined winter. A planet, his home, where he feared, no he knew, he'd probably never set foot on again. He missed seeing more then just four of his kind staring back at him everyday, well now just himself. One can only say so much to a screen. Only so much one can handle before their knees will buckle and land on one's face. Dive wondered when that would be for him, if he hadn't already done so. If this was suppose to be the better of what had happened. If it was...he'd rather just stay on the ground. Why attempt to get up and pick up the pieces when all he was getting was cut. Nothing else.

"..Where here sir," The man said startling him, causing Dive to jump forward looking around the area. That was uneventful. At least it was that.

Dive got out and the driver helped him set his stuff on the curb and Dive paid him, as well tipped him a bit. There was no need to be a cheap ass considering the man helped him get his stuff in and out of the taxi.

"Thank you," The man smiled and drove off.

Turning Dive looked up at the building knowing this was going to be tougher then anything he had faced yet. Being alone could kill him.

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"Sheesh...Cats..." Dive muttered coming home from his job, taking off his tie and jacket tossing them on the couch as he passed by into his room to get out of the suit. He HATED those things, but with the New York office so big it was required or they would give him dirty looks. Not only that but on the way home one of those alley cats he passed by everyday attacked him, got him good in the hand. Most have thought he was some oversized walking lunch or something!

Reaching in the cabinet he grabbed the peroxide and pored it without much thought over the wound and went to grab a band aid. Placing on the cut after washing the peroxide off he went into his bed room and finished undressing, slipping into some jeans and an old Mighty Ducks t-shirt. Walking out he sat down on the couch wondering if he should call his supposed "soldiers" that the United States borrowed him for this war. Dive didn't trust any of them. It wouldn't be that hard for Dragonuas to use his human soldiers to get in one of the small armies the ducks had anyway.

So he was protecting New York by himself. Reaching over to the stand he opened up his communicator and gazed down at the com button that would have been Wings. Tanya hadn't updated the comm.s since then mainly cuz of Duke running away and not being able to give him any new communicators if they where updated. He had run off with his communicator. Sure, someone had tried to use the communicator to contact him, but never did he answer.

Reaching out he pushed his brother's button, only to hear something beep in his apartment. That wasn't a surprise to Dive. Wildwings com was in a box in his front closet.

Getting up and setting his comm. on the stand it had been sitting on he walked over to the closet, opening it only to have the beeping grow louder. Shaking his head, Nosedive reached up and pulled the small box out of the top shelf and brought it down to his eye level seeing the communicator flash and beep in front of him. Taking it from the box he set it aside. There was still some dried red drops on the top of it. Probably his brother's blood as it was yanked from his arm to keep them from finding Wing. Dive figured his bro threw the mask off before Dragonuas took him where ever it was that he disappeared to.

And probably died.

Opening it up the beeping stopped and Dive was greeted with just a reflection of himself in the display. His eyes gazed down at the buttons and locked on the bloody print on the one that would have called his comm. Everyone knew what this had meant. Wing had tried to call him before it all had gone down. At least he had been the one Wing trusted to try and save him, but Dive felt that he had failed as a brother not getting to his brother in time. During all the chaos that was that battle Dives communicator could have beeped, but he hadn't heard it. Probably to busy trying to save his own ass to even think that Wing could be in serious danger. Never thinking Wildwing was just a mortal, just his brother, trying to protect him. Protect his innocence. How that had been shattered that day.

"..Wing..." His choked up voice crocked out as he dropped his brother comm., hearing it clunk below him as he slid to the floor against the wall behind him, holding himself. Gazing at the white device through his tears. No matter how many times he called him, Wing would never answer. He'd never walk through that door with a smile on his face. Sometimes he feared that he couldn't remember his brothers face through that mask. Was he that awful that he could forget something that important?! He wanted Wing there! Dive wanted someone he could trust to talk to and as of now, the two ducks that he did trust weren't around. Wing was dead and Duke...

Duke had his own issues to even start worrying about him.

He hated being alone.

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Waking up, turning his head he heard his comm. beside him beep. He had fallen asleep on the couch. Blinking Nosedive turned his head to gaze at his clock seeing it was four in the morning. Who the hell was calling him this late? Reaching up he picked it up and flipped it open to see Tanya there, looking fully awake.

"..Sorry for calling so late," She laughed. "But I just got home from the lab and I needed to call you."

"Yo Tanny you should warn me before you do this," Dive yawned. "What where you working on till three in the morning at the lab exactly?"

"That's classified," Tanya seemed to laugh on the communicator screen. Well at least someone was happy. "Anyway I'm calling you to tell you I'm going to start working on the Mini-Drake 4's tomorrow and if everything goes well with that I'll have them done by next week. I'll be heading to Mallory's first and then I'll fly to Grin's and you'll be my last stop. You should start cleaning out your extra room there for me. I know how bad you are at keeping those clean."

Dive epped shaking his head laughing lightly.

"Ahh you just couldn't keep away from the Diveman," He joked.

"Yeah, like I'd date someone who looks like such hell," Tanya snuffed joking with him.

"Heyyyy," Dive frowned. "You woke me in the middle of my beauty sleep, besides why are you calling me so late? Did you call the other two?"

"I already told you, you need to start cleaning the extra room out or you'll be loosing your room for those days I'm there," Tanya said seriously. She was completely serious about that, wasn't she, Dive thought.

"I'm not that messy anymore Tannygirl," He yawned. "Anyway thanks for the heads up at least." Blinking Dive heard his phone going off. "Geez, you must be rubbing off on people, I've got a call to take Tanny, I'll talk to you tomorrow, k?" He muttered getting up as she nodded and said her goodnight, or good morning, what ever the case may be.

Closing the comm. Nosedive strolled over to his phone and answered it hearing one of the "soldiers" on the other end.

"Sir, some group of people seem to be attacking a water facility here at 98763 Waterway Dr.," The man's voice said to him. "The police figured it was probably an organized attack by the saurians."

"I'll be there in a minute," Dive sighed hanging up the phone quickly rushing to his room to change into his battle gear.

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So it was six in the morning when they had finally either killed the people or the people gave up. He was dead tired on his feet yawning every few minutes as someone handed him a cup of coffee. Taking it to his beak he took a sip of it, feeling its warmth rush down his throat to his empty stomach.

"Thank you," He said coughing and looking at the policeman standing next to him.

"..Why do you think they where trying to attack facility?" The man said with a notebook in his hand.

"..It's obvious," Nosedive muttered drinking down the whole cup in a gulp. "Contaminate the water will bring a huge chunk of New York to their knees, but contaminate it with what..." Dive muttered walking away from the confused cop toward one of the dead humans, clutching something in his hand. Kneeling down Dive set the cup next to him on the ground and began to pry the dead man's hand open, only to find a small bottle. Taking it he raised it up into the growing sunlight trying to see anything alarming about the bottle. There was a reason, after all, that the man died protecting it. Sighing he slid it into a pocket in his armored vest standing up, leaving the cup there. He'd have to send it to Tanny today.

"Sir, your orders?" Another voice broke in as he turned his head seeing his small army standing there, none of them had been seriously hurt during the attack, which was good.

"Just keep an eye out for any suspious people," Dive said. "And have them beef up security around all water planets, power planets and such. We don't know what the saurians are really planning yet and until we figure that out treat it as high risk." The men and woman nodded leaving to do something, though Dive didn't much care. Yawning again he walked away from the area, heading back to his apartment. Now there would be no way he could sleep, but he could at least get a shower and call Tanya telling her of what he had found. He'd rather not try and contact her out here. Who knows who's working for Dragonuas anyway?

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Looking up from the shell of a computer Tanya watched as some of her lab workers where looking at the machine that she had just finished the first reading on. It wasn't finished yet, but it wasn't going to be finished for a while anyway. She figured after two nights ago with the test that she'd start on the computers, so on the tables on the far end of the lab there where four computer shells that she was making and buying chips for. Not to mention the OS she would have to write for them but that wouldn't be that hard.

"Tanya," One of her assistance said causing her to look above the computer tower seeing a small package in their hands.

"That's probably the package that Nosedive overnighted to me," Tanya said getting up and taking it from the assistant, walking over to a microscope, opening the package finding a small bottle full of a clear liquid. Shaking it lightly, nothing seemed to change in the bottle. Turning she grabbed a small glass disk and a dropper, opening up the bottle and taking a few drop out of it, placing it on the glass disk. Then she placed it under the microscope and gazed at the liquid. Its molecules where moving in a zig zag shape around the glass.

"Dan!" Tanya yelled looking up from the microscope. A few moments and the man was standing there smiling.

"Yeah?" He asked.

Picking up the small glass dish Tanya handed it to him.

"Run some tests on that, and find out what it's made out of," She said. Nodding he took it and walked off leaving here there.

Leaning back Tanya took a moment to think about what it could be. One of the most obvious ideas would be some sorta poison. Dragonuas trying to poison a fourth of New York didn't sound to far off of what he could be planning since New York after all was such a large city to begin with. Even if he got an eight of the population, it would still be a hell of a lot of people dead.

But what worried Tanya the most is if it WASN'T a poison. Then what the hell was Dragonuas planning and what would have happened to New York, Dive, and possibly Duke if he was really there if they had succeeded. Dragonuas was limited by the human technology as much as she but he still could whip up something nasty, like she could make a super computer Earth wouldn't normally be able to make for another hundred years or so. She'd figured it could have been worse if one of his henchmen was an actual scientist. They had magic, brute, and...well Chameleon. It could be some sorta potion though. Then she'd need a bit of Duke's help, and he was no where to be found yet.

After all she was just a scientist. Tanya didn't know the first thing about magic. It had no logic in the science realm. All she knew was it did indeed exist and people could use it if they rightly knew how, though most of Earth had fallen out of that category depending more and more on science with each passing year which made her life a lot easier most of the time. It was things like this that worried her. There was no so to speak magic cure that could stop a spell unless you knew another spell to stop it...well if Duke wasn't around her had to figure out someone who could tell her about magic...

Maybe Grin had some idea of what to do about magic, since what he practice had it's own kind of magic to learn and master if one wanted to, though Tanya didn't know if Grin really knew it or was practicing. She could at least call and ask.

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His comm. began to ring as he was trying to meditate. Opening his eyes Grin lifted his hand viewing the comm. as he opened it seeing Tanya's face on the screen.

"Grin, do you know anything about magic, by chance?" She asked. Sighing Grin started to stand up.

"I don't Tanya. Is there anything you need to know?" He asked.

"...Well maybe..." Tanya muttered looking down at something that wasn't visible on his screen. "The test results won't be in for another few hours. I just need to find someone beside's Duke who could tell me about magic."

"..some humans can do magic, Tanya," Grin said.

"...I know," Tanya sighed defeated. "But I don't know who to even ask or start. There are a lot of fakes on Earth. Besides, it might not even be a problem. I was just making sure I had all the cards in hand before the total deck was delt."

"Sounds like you're in Vegas," Grin laughed. Even Tanya laughed about that. "..Anyway Tanya."

"Yeah?" The blonde scientist asked.

"...Did you ever tell him?" Grin then asked earning a confused look from Tanya.

"..What are you talking about Grin?" She blinked wondering why he went off on some odd subject which was confusing her.

Grin in the past noticed a lot of things most people would be totally unaware of, to busy with their own lives and own thoughts to notice them. That's why he before Duke had said anything that he loved Mallory. Gestures and looks can say a lot about how one feels towards another person. Like how he had known that Tanya did loves Wildwing wither or not the people knew that they did feel that way.

"You loved Wing, right?" Grin sighed. It had been three years since Wildwing had disappeared, five since Grin had noticed how Tanya acted around him.

A blush came upon Tanya's face instantly after he had said that.

"...What do you mean...I mean...how did you k...why the heck are you asking that question?" Tanya became more flustered as she spoke.

"Because one can not move on until one accepts what happened," Grin stated calmly as Tanya finally ended up with a facial expression of defeat. "I understand why you worry about the young one, trying to leave off where Wing stopped but trying to keep Nosedive safe in this war, which I tell you has already started it's toll upon him, will not bring him back."

Tanya turned her head; tears now obviously around her eyes threaten to spill over as Grin watched on the small monitor.

"..I was going to tell him," She said. "When the time was right, when we could settle a bit and it wouldn't scare the crap out of him." Reaching up Tanya wiped some tears away slowly. "...and then I couldn't..."

Grin nodded understanding.

"...If it'll help you move on I feel that Wing did seem feel the same way," Grin muttered. "Even though they where brothers Wildwing was so stone cold when it came to his feelings while Nosedive wears them out on his sleeve."

"Yeah," Tanya muttered as she was calming down. "Anyway I should go; I've got those computers to build."

"Ok," Grin said. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"...Grin," She then broke in. "Thanks, at least I can feel a bit better about the whole situation." Smiling she waved goodbye and hung up the comm. leaving Grin there staring at the wall for a moment thinking about everything.

It was true what he had said about Wing and Dive. He knew that Nosedive was having a harder time with everything then he was showing, just by the fact that he was hiding it so awfully. There would be no peace for the young duck until he came to terms with everything that had happened, much like the rest of them. Sometime life wouldn't go the way you wanted it. If life did it wouldn't be worth living. There wouldn't be a challenge in it.

Besides Dive was never good at lying, they all knew that.

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"..Remember girls, if all else fails go for the eyes," Mallory said motioning an uppercut toward her assistant as the woman all nodded clapping for her and they began to thank her and leave. Turning she thanked her assistant again for helping show how to defend one's self and began to clean up the room so the next user of it wouldn't have all the mats on the floor. That was a requirement for working there which she didn't mind doing it.

Standing up she brushed the dust off that was on her hands and exited the room glancing about the hallway making sure there wasn't going to be some surprise attack of Dragonuas's while she was just trying to get home. Being in Anaheim brought back a lot of memories of before everything had went south. Everyday she passed by the rink that they used to call home reminded of what had changed. Right now it was being used for Youth hockey at least though it was up for sale again. Nobody seemed to hold on to it for very long, probably due to the fact that when they sold it the first time, they locked the elevator and wiped the computer so nobody could access the base below. Only Tanya could get back into the base and that's the way they wanted it. The fact is if Dragonuas could get below he could blow Anaheim sky high by just throwing a bomb in the right area of their base.

Now she was walking back to her apartment, which ironically used to be Phil's apartment before Wildwing told him it would be best to move away and get lost in a large city somewhere. Even though he was a bother most of the time the Ducks thought of him as a friend, closest human to the group besides Dive with Thrash and Mookie...

Shaking her head a sad look over came her features as she thought about when they had found them. Full of bullet holes, parts of the comic shop burning. The look of Nosedives faces...

She shivered thinking about it. How Nosedive had clung to Wildwing after driving Chameleon and Siege away from the shop. How the duck had trembled kneeling down as Tanya checked to see if either was still alive. Mookie had actually survived a little while...

(flashback)

Smoke was filling the area fast as Mallory took aim at Chameleon, sending a few shots at him, trying to stop the saurian before they did anymore damage, not to mention trying to give cover to Tanya and Dive who where over checking on Mookie and Thrash.

"Time to split!" Chameleon had hissed toward Siege who was in the middle of a match of brute with Grin. "We did what was ordered."

"..aww I was just having some fun," Siege grumbled hitting his transporter once he could throw Grin far enough back to make it out safely. Chameleon just ran for cover and teleported out.

"How are they?!" Mallory yelled over the sound of the fire rushing over behind the cash register seeing Wing, Grin, Tanya, Duke, and Nosedive already there. But the look on Dive's face told her everything.

He was kneeling next to Thrash, holding the man close, crying like hell over his shoulder.

"...Nooooo." Dive had wailed. "This can't be happening! We where suppose to protect them!"

Mallory felt pity for the young teenager turning her head toward Tanya who was hunched over the woman with a scanner typing like hell.

"..dive..." All of a sudden Mookie crocked out. Instantly the blonde duck turned looking at his friend.

"You're alive!" He cried quickly setting down Thrash and crawling to her, grabbing her hand. "You'll make it through this!"

"..Please dive..." She muttered again, visible spasms of pain washing through her breaking her words up. "..Don't blame...don't blame yourself...It's not your fault..." She coughed out, spitting blood everywhere.

"...We're loosing her!" Tanya cried as her sensor began to go off, Mookie's eyes rolling to the back of her head causing Nosedive to scream and throw himself on her.

"..Come back! Don't let it end this way!" He began to sob; now clinging onto her body.

"...We've got to get out of here guys, this place is about to go up," Duke then muttered. "We can't stop this fire."

"..We can't just leave them here!" Dive screamed as Wildwing grabbed onto his hysterical brother pulling him from the body and dragging him out the door, wither he wanted to or not...

Mallory was snapped out of the flashback with the sound of a twig breaking behind her. Turning quickly Mallory instantly pulled out her gun and aimed it where she thought she had heard the twig.

"..Come out now!" Mallory snapped taking the gun off of safety. She wasn't going to let Dragonuas sneak up on her like he had on Mookie and Thrash. She would survive this damn war and bring Duke back; she had sworn it to herself when he had taken off.

"...Yo, a sad look has never been quite flattering you you sweetheart," A VERY familiar voice chimed in as he walked out from behind a bush, hands in his pockets. Mallory instantly pulled her gun back staring in shock at a face that she thought she wouldn't ever see again and had also feared that he had died in some alleyway by Dragonuas's hand.

"...Duke..." Came from her quivering beak.

"Long time no see, eh?" He laughed stepping more into the light of the street lamp. "You look well."

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(Authors notes)

Yes this is a long chapter; I meant it to be that way.

Yay! Duke is back! But for how long one wonders? And what has he been up to for all these years? Well I guess we might find out in the next chapter.

I've never been to New York and I don't have a map, I made up all the street names used and will be making up all the street names used in every town. I'm lazy. I know they kind of suck for street names but o well.

If you haven't figured it out this story is normally based on Nosedive. Wither or not I include much of the other team is kind of random. I do try but it is based in Nosedives world most of the time. So please don't get pissed off at me if I don't include enough face time of the others to your liking.

I said in the prologue I'll list more songs that could be on the "soundtrack" for this series. A song called Missing by Evanescence is a good one. Crawling by Linkin Park, Bad Day by Fuel, Much Afraid by Jars of Clay to name a few. Notice how sad the track is getting? But the two that really are influencing the feel of this story is Innocent by Fuel and Missing by Evanescence. I can see Dive and his emotions when listening to them.

BTW I'm in the middle of coloring another picture for this series. The picture takes place in the beginning of chapter 3 so you'll see it in the next update with this series. If anyone wants to make pictures for this series I'd love to see them (and link them)! This would be one of those stories I'd dream about making into a web comic OO. But first I need to get good at drawing the ducks BEFORE I can even attempt that. Yes Candy-chan is having dreams of grandeur again!

Anyway I should stop my randomness and such. Please review before you go and as always thanks for taking the time to read one of my stories!


	4. Chapter 3: Revealed

_**Never armed our souls  
What the future would hold **_

_**  
When we were innocent**_

Chapter 3: Revealed

Mallory was still in shock. There the gray haired duck stood there, hands still in his pockets of a pair of tore up jeans. On his chest was a loose black t-shirt and a maroon vest. Shaking her head she put her gun away quickly and began to walk up to him, fearing he'd take off again.

"...Your here Duke," She muttered watching him closely. If the man was going to bolt or anything she would be ready to chase after him and try and stop him.

"Yeah I am, figured it was time enough to come back," He shrugged acting like had nothing happened. Like they had just had a busy day back at the pond way back when and where finally able to settle down. But this wasn't then and it had been three years! As Mallory changed her demeanor began to change, crossing her arms over her chest almost glaring at him.

"Yeah I would say so," She muttered looking away from him. "We're a team and you took off. It's been hell Duke."

"I know that sweetheart," He said slightly chuckling as he took his hand out of his pocket and rubbed the back of his head. "But it wasn't like any vacation. I was working the whole time." His eyes gazed up at her face softening a bit. "But I knew I had to come see you before I head back to New York."

"So you where there," Mallory glared back at him. "And you couldn't say anything?! Do anything?! Damn Duke, you can't just admit that you love me and then just take off! Not after Wing...hell it wasn't just me you left!"

"I know that," He said calmly again walking up to her till they where face to face. "But sweetheart, there are things that I had to do that couldn't be no where close to the team. Dragonuas couldn't know where I was but now that's done and I've returned...plus" He smiled pulling his other hand from his pocket and placed them both on her shoulders. Mallory flinched slightly but let him rest them there. "I had to forgive myself." His eyes gazed down at the spot that the bald patch would have been if Mallory hadn't been wearing the cloth Tanya had made for her. "..She does good work."

"Of course she does," Mallory muttering her eyes dropping looking towards his chest. "But I never blamed you. It wasn't your fault what had happened."

"Now honey, that's the way you think. I think differently then that. If I had been quicker you wouldn't be as you are but...there is nothing I can do about it now and I'm glad Tanya can make miracles in her lab. Nobody should think your anything less then perfect, sweetheart."

"I'm not perfect..." Mallory began to crack. She had promised herself she wouldn't cry when Duke finally showed his head, but here she was on the verge of tears.

"Shhhh..." Duke whispered closing the space between them with a kiss. After a few moments they pulled apart slowly.

"..Welcome back..." Mallory whispered back quietly.

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The red haired duck looked across from herself to the gray duck that had sat down in her apartment and took the coffee she had offered, but all he was doing was staring at it. They hadn't spoke since they had been out in the street about an hour ago. She wanted to ask about what he had been doing that was so damn important to run out on her and not return for years. Not to mention he never called or even wrote her a letter. It better be important or Duke would be kicked out on his ass tonight. Clearing her throat Duke looked up at her as smiled at him.

"Do you mind telling me what exactly you did while you where gone?" She started. "You owe me...no you owe us an explanation on that. I understand you needed to forgive yourself but you did something else for all those damn years too."

"Of course," Duke nodded sipping the coffee she had given him for the first time. "...You remembered." He looked astonished at the cup.

Mallory began to blush looking away from him.

"..Well duh, out of the ducks you where so Damn stubborn on how you wanted your coffee, of course I'd remember Duke," She ended the sentence with a sigh and shaking her head chuckling. "Black, two sugars and a little milk..."

"..But not too much as to spoil the flavor," Duke ended laughing. "You even got the milk right sweetheart, not many can do that."

"..Will you just get on with the whole explanation, I've still got to sleep tonight," She hissed mock glaring at him taking a drink of her coffee. Though Mallory knew that it with the story and the coffee she'd probably wouldn't sleep much tonight...

"..After I ran out I left Dallas I ran off to New York...and spent most of my time there actually..." Duke began...

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Looking at the red light, Nosedive forced the feelings down to honk his horn and yell obscenities at the cars in front of him. New York traffic was like hell, hell on a hot summer day with rotten fish next to you and a fan across from it blowing toward you. The fan was there trying to keep you cool but only make it all worse. Even New York got warm. But he kept his cool, trying to listen to the radio, tapping his hand to a beat absently watching the pedestrians cross the road in front of him now. It just wasn't his day, well most days weren't his. He just got the leftovers.

"..If that light doesn't turn green..." Nosedive mumbled under his breath as the light turned green finally and the cars ahead of him began to roll forward. All he wanted to do was go home. Go to his apartment and relax a bit, maybe watch some TV. Just something then this car. There had been a time where a car was one of his dream objects to own. Something just beyond his grasp that he almost drooled when it was mentioned. But that again was before everything had happened and taken its toll on him. Now he just wanted to crash into the bumper of the car in front of him for being so damn slow! His fingers twitched wanting to lay on the horn, but luckily for the car ahead of him it turned off the street leaving him drying with a few car lengths till the one ahead of him: breathing room. Loosing his grip on the steering wheel Dive leaned back and relaxed a bit. His knuckles turning to their peachiest yellow color instead of the white they had been.

Nosedive had just been to the doctor's office who had told him he couldn't be given Prozac anymore. Then the doctor claimed all high and mighty that who ever had prescribed him the drug was an idiot and should have his license stripped for giving it to him...so there went his prescription. Though a thought had occurred to him that the fact was he was so emotional to begin with that the Prozac probably wasn't working and that's why the doctor was saying such things. He was a duck after all and normally humans don't test new drugs on ducks. Its mice and monkeys for that. Now if only he where a giant mouse, that stuff might have worked a bit better.

Plus the doctor said he was under a lot of stress...It took all Dive's willpower to not give him a smart ass comment. When your trying to save a world and you've only got a few people helping you, you're gonna be stressed. It didn't matter if you where Bill Gates or some weird dude under a rock. Stress would catch up with you. And boy was Dive feeling it more then ever.

First of all he had to force himself to eat still. His appetite still was shit. Then the fact he couldn't sleep, and when he did he either had nightmares or happy dreams (which for Dive was WORSE then the nightmares) or usually ended up screaming or crying himself awake.

Then it was the whole "bursting into tears randomly" thing that was really getting to him. Dive was supposed to be the team captain! Not some crybaby woozy boy who wanted his mommy. How the hell was he suppose to be a good leader when all he did was cry. Cry, worry, and complain to himself.

At least he hadn't resorted to drinking yet.

But when you're on Prozac, you can't really drink either. Shaking his head he finally pulled into his parking garage and headed down the ramp.

Pulling into his parking spot Dive got out of his car checking the area quickly before locking his car and walking to the elevator. A good shower was calling to him. A nice long one, to clear his mind even if it was for just a few minutes after all his mind always seemed to be going at something, worrying about something. Besides that, he really didn't have anyone to talk to either. Dive was after all supposed to be a leader, and therefore was suppose to be available for the others who had concerns. Never did Wildwing voice worries he had, well to him at least.

There was a small voice in the back of his head that told him it would be alright to talk to Tanya and the others but he figured it was a weak thing to do. Once the war was over then he could rest...if he survived of course. He didn't need to bother the others with his stupid problems and worries. They might do something drastic if he really did bother them, like kick him out of the team which meant he would have no where to go. Nobody to trust.

Something he didn't want to ever happen.

So, Nosedive thought walking into his apartment, is this how it was for Drake DuCaine? Did he feel so awful and wore out all the time? Did he have these nightmares?

...was this HIS legacy? Hell if it was no wonder anybody stepped forward right away when Puckworld had been attacked! Like hell anyone would want this!

Shaking his head he turned and locked his door heading to the bathroom. While he would be there he'd count how many Prozac he had left and debate wither or not to get a second opinion. Sure, Dive knew, that if he went to enough doctors one would prescribe the pill. Was it worth it exactly considering how bad he always felt? Was this just the tip of an ice burg? Nosedive had no way of telling if the pills had worked and the only reason he felt this way was because the Prozac took the edge off of it. Was he willing to risk it?

Looking at the five pills in his hand he leaned on the wall with the other. It was hell anyway; mine as well try without them for a bit. After all if he felt worse then this he could always go back to a doctor and beg for the pill. Slipping the pills back in the small bottle he shut the cabinet and turned turning on the shower.

At least Wing couldn't see the shell of a man he had truly become. He was thankful for that. Wildwing died knowing the innocent teenager he had once been.

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So she hadn't touched the computers since yesterday, since the chemical makeup had come back from testing. She still was still looking at that paper wondering what the heck to do.

Unknown.

It was an unknown substance, which meant Tanya had no information on it at all! What the heck was Dragonuas planning to put into the water system of New York? Plus since it had no known chemical makeup they could sneak it into smaller cities without as much of a problem. This could be a huge problem already occurring. How could this have happened right under her beak! That meant that they had to do tons of testing right away before anything irreversible happened.

"Dan!" She called again as the man came running up hearing the urgency in her voice.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Start testing it, on mice, on monkeys, on planets. On anything we have the ability to test on besides human subjects. This is top priority from now and out. We need to find out what exactly the effects of this stuff and how to reverse it." Nodding the man took the bottle and papers and rushed away as Tanya stood up stretching for a moment.

She wasn't going to loose in this war. She was the top scientist and she would figure out what it was before anything bad happened. Failure wasn't an option.

Turning she rushed away following after Dan. The computers would have to wait.

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Taking a deep breath Grin sat alone in his apartment not to far from the capital. There was a lot of unrest around them all because of this war. The people of the United States had almost been cut off from the world due to the fact the other countries did not want Dragonuas trying to take them over as well. A stupid idea, Grin, grimly thought. If the United States had more help then Dragonuas could have probably been wiped out a long time ago but it's a normal, but scary, view to think that a problem will happen somewhere else and never to you.

He knew it would be only a matter of time that Dragonuas would start trying to get into Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. If he could do that successfully there would be no way they alone could stop him. There were only four of them after all and if they stretched themselves out they still couldn't cover all the big continents. If Wildwing was still around it could be possible...and if Canard hadn't fallen into limbo there would be seven of them, enough for each continent, even Antarctica would be covered, though Grin figured that that would be the last place Dragonuas would try and take over considering the fact nobody wanted to be there.

Actually though Grin figured Dragonuas could take over Antarctica and nobody would really care. That would be one place that Dragonuas would easily take over, but it would be no accomplishment.

Standing up from meditating, Grin decided to go talk with the people he was working with. The security at the capital was tight. There really wasn't much fight considering every time one of Dragonuas's attacks was halted pretty quickly. It was a very important city after all. If Washington fell then it would only be a matter of time before the rest of the bigger cities fell and Dragonuas would win.

Walking over he grabbed his apartment keys and headed out the door, locking and shutting it behind him.

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"...so how long are you going to be here?" She muttered pouring a cup of coffee and setting it on the table for Duke to grab as he came into the room. They had talked a lot last night about what he had done, what she had done. How the others were and where they were. It had been nice but the red haired duck knew that he'd be moving somewhere else quickly enough. When Duke was in the middle of something it wasn't his style to just sit back and let time pass. In the three years he'd been gone he had done a lot for the team wither they knew it or not. A lot of battles where interrupted due to something Duke had done somewhere knowing about the battle.

Turning her head her eyes rested on him as he entered the room.

"Ahh don't worry your pretty head sweetheart," He laughed taking the cup and drinking it. "I'll be flying to tomorrow, back to New York. From your worries and concerns I'm needed there." Mumbling he sat back down.

Duke was hoping what Mallory said wasn't true. That her fears where misplaced and that Nosedive was as fine as he could be considering all that had happened. It would only make sense that Mallory would worry about the others but the way she spoke about Dive and how she had been getting the feeling that he was hiding something from them, well that was something that had to be looked into.

They didn't need to loose a member of their already weakened team to anything. It was bad enough that they could all die in some battle down the road but to have one willingly kill themselves, at their own hand. Well, that was preventable and he was going to make sure if Dive was that gone that he'd at least have him to talk to for a bit. Maybe that would make all the difference. After all, he knew that when he had left the only real close person to the kid was himself.

Sure Duke knew he probably shouldn't have left, but he couldn't think straight with everyone there all the time. He couldn't find himself in a crowd. That had always been the case for him. Always the loner unlike some of the team who thrived with other people around. It had been one of the reasons in the beginning of his ex-career as a thief that he had chosen the profession. Thieves normally didn't hang out with other thieves.

Shaking his head, he tried to clear his thoughts looking up at Mallory who instantly had a slight blush upon her cheeks. He also knew that it was probably stupid to even be trying to start a relationship during this whole battle. A lot of extra stress and pressure to make sure the one you love didn't get hurt.

Well anymore hurt.

But he worried about that wither or not they where a couple officially. So the older duck figured that he minas well just be in a relationship with her and enjoy it. Who knows what might happen in the future. Hell who knew what could happen in an hour the way Dragonuas was playing now a day.

"..Could you take work off today?" He then asked. "I figure that I should treat my lady to a day of what ever she chooses while I can."

"I can," Mallory said picking up a piece of bread that she had buttered. "I haven't been out like that for a while actually. Been to busy working and keeping Dragonuas at bay."

"Well you should have a bit more fun sweetheart, after all they say all work and no play make a duck very angry." He chuckled standing up and walking over to Mallory. "Now where would you like to go first?"

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Hands stuffed in his pockets, jacket tightly wrapped around him Nosedive walked down the street. It was a day off and from the reports of his human help there wasn't a word yet underground of anything Dragonuas was pulling. So he had in the spur of the moment figured he'd go actually do something. It had been a while since Dive had went out to do something that didn't involve buying pills, buying food, buying clothes, or fighting Dragonuas. Hell he hadn't even picked up a video game controller for a few years. There was no time to. That had been given up when Dragonuas killed Thrash and Mookie. Mostly it was because of the fact that if he walked near a comic shop, near an arcade or even saw an advertisement in a magazine for the first few years after their deaths Nosedive would cry, much like how he was for Wildwing. That was something he didn't want to think about at the moment though. He wanted to try and get in a good mood, maybe play an old arcade game and try and grasp where he was six years ago. Maybe capture a part of the man he had once been.

Walking into the arcade, after standing out there a few seconds looking in, was almost a shock to the blonde duck. The sounds, the laughter, the lights. It bothered him. Strolling over slowly to a shooting game he picked up the gun and threw in a few quarters ignoring the stares he was receiving from the younger children who didn't quite understand who he was or even WHAT he was. When the game came on his instincts kicked in and he didn't have to think much as he pulled the trigger when the monsters popped into the screen. It was easy to him now.

Sure Dive had always been a great shot, above average for just a regular person. Gifted, some may say, but he had played this game many of years ago when they first arrived on Earth. Mookie had actually been the one to introduce it to him saying it was top of the line. They as a group spent many of hours and many of dollars on the game, trying to get as far as he had gotten in a few minutes.

The red...the blood that splattered all over the screen as the monsters heads exploded in the game.

It was too much.

Dropping the gun, which swung hitting the machine, Dive felt tears running down his face. Would he ever get over their deaths?! Would the flashbacks ever end?!

Why did Mookie have to say that to him! It was his fault they where dead. All his fault! Turning Nosedive rushed to the exit, any exit, finding himself in a back alleyway, trying to recover his bearings once again. It was his fault for a lot of crap that had happened. He even blamed himself for Wildwings death after all. If Nosedive had stayed on Puckworld instead of following Wildwing, then Wildwing wouldn't have had to worry about him so much. The older duck probably rushed Dragonuas trying to make sure that Nosedive wouldn't get hurt or killed. Why hadn't he stayed? Canard didn't want him there; most of the team hadn't wanted him there in the beginning. There where other things to worry about then a sixteen year old duck who just wanted to follow his brother.

After all during the war there Nosedive and Wildwings parents had been killed. There was no where else to go for Dive then with his brother. That's why Wildwing fought Canard so hard to keep Nosedive there. Because it was easier to defend a teenager standing right next to you then one somewhere you didn't know.

He didn't want to be a burden to any of them. None of them needed to worry about him.

Nosedive just needed to get over this all, by himself, on his own. Without any of their help.

After all, a leader needs to be strong, right?

He didn't feel all that strong. Actually most of the time Dive felt like quitting. But they didn't need to know that.

It would just worry them after all. And Nosedive felt he didn't deserve to be worried about.

He felt he didn't deserve anything.

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Yawning Nosedive sat up in his bed, blinking trying to look at the time on his alarm clock next to him. It as 3:54 in the morning. Rubbing his eyes he swung his bare feet to the edge of his bed and scooted off. Walking drowsily toward his bathroom he turned on the light and closed the door.

Walking out he flipped off the light, causing it to be complete darkness once more. Something about the dark instilled a fear in Nosedive and yet he felt his calmest when the dark was around him. He was in his own world that nobody could penetrate. Maybe that's what scared him so much. That he was alone with himself and Dive knew he didn't know himself anymore.

Crawling into bed he laid on his back looking up at the ceiling, Remembering back when they all lived under the hockey rink Nosedive turned wishing he was still in that familiar bed. Then Wildwing was just across the hall and everyone else was just a shout away. Here and now he'd have to yell pretty hard to get them all to hear him.

Chuckling Dive thought about the joke he just thought about. Closing his eyes he began to drift off to sleep. Maybe this time he wouldn't have a dream. Those where the nights he actually slept.

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There where things he had found out in his underground hunt for Dragonuas. Many things that Duke figured he'd never would have known. But it was one piece of information that he had heard one day eas dropping a conversation Chameleon, who was in some human form and one of the human commanders that had really brought Duke back to the team once more. Sure he needed to forgive himself, and he had a while back but when he had he realized he was in a really good spot to help the team, wither they knew it or not.

So now here he was flying back to New York, back to the youngest duck of the team, fearing, no dreading and hoping that what Mallory had said wasn't true. They needed the blonde duck very much stable for what he was going to tell them because they needed to plan something after. This wasn't something you could fly into blind. It wasn't something you could go into very much an emotional wreck.

Glancing out the window he saw New York in his view. It would only be an hour now until he saw the blonde duck. The younger duck right now should be in his apartment, probably just getting up from his sleep. Duke knew of course when Dive's work was and that's why he had caught this plane, to catch Nosedive before he headed off to work. This was something very important and only had hinted toward Mallory what exactly it was, but didn't tell her. Dive should hear the news first.

Trying to knot the tie Nosedive grumbled under his breath swearing that tonight he'd go buy a clip on. It wasn't like the people at work expected him to have a real tie. He probably figured they figured that what he was wearing was a fake tie. That or get someone to tie these things and then glue it so he wouldn't have to try and tie one every morning he head work!

"..Stupid ass..." Hissing he heard his door bell right. Glancing at the time and the calendar by his kitchen Nosedive wondered who it could be so early. Tanya wasn't heading up to New York for another six or so days. She called him last night telling him that. The others would have called ahead and not make him freak out this early. He already got enough head aches then to worry about unexpected visitors.

Letting go of the tie he walked over to the door, peaking out of the peep hole seeing a duck he didn't even think about. Quickly Nosedive began to unlock all his locks, joy replaced the frustration he had had a few seconds before as he flung the door open jumping on the older duck.

"Duke!" He squealed like he would have back when he was still a teenager. It was so good to see the duck alive and well! Nosedive felt a lot of worry and pain just seem to float away seeing Duke laughing. Tears began to force themselves to the surface as he stepped back wiping them away grinning. "I was worried to beat hell!"

"...I see you haven't changed much," Duke laughed walking past him into Dive's apartment glancing around noticing how the blonde duck had decorated the place with just normal things. It didn't seem anything like Nosedive at all. Even right before Wildwing had disappeared the duck was still reading comic books and playing games. There wasn't a game in site or a comic book. Maybe he was more changed then Duke thought a few seconds ago.

"..Your back?" The duck behind him said very guarded.

"Yeah, for a little while at least." Duke said picking up a weird cat statue. "Kid, you still got weird taste."

"Hey..." Nosedive said reaching over and taking the cat figure from Duke and setting on a counter. "Let me just call my work and call in telling them I won't be making it today." Quickly without allowing Duke to say anything he went to the phone and dialed a number.

Sighing Duke shook his head walking over into his living room more, noticing a picture of Wildwing and Nosedive on a couch end. The older duck was giving Dive a noogie. The picture brought a smile to Duke's face. Ahh, times had changed since then.

"..Did you already fly out and see Mal-mal?" Nosedive's voice broke in behind him. Duke turned toward the duck, seeing that Nosedive had taken off the shirt and tie he had been wearing standing there in a tank top he must have been wearing as an undershirt.

"Yeah," Duke laughed. "You're the second stop I've been to. I figured you needed to be the first to be told what I've heard in one of my tracks of the saurians."

"...Do you know where they are now?" Dive muttered. Shaking his head Duke told the answer.

"..But I do think their in New York." He said afterward. "That's why I've been focusing my abilities here."

Taking a deep breath Duke wondered how the kid would react to the news. Turning he picked up the picture he had looked at a few seconds earlier and tossed it to Dive who caught it without flinching.

Nosedive glanced down at the picture and back up at Duke wondering why the ex-thief had thrown it at him.

"You might want to sit down kid for what I've got to tell you." Duke muttered dryly looking at him almost in pity.

This caused Nosedive to grow worried almost instantly. This wasn't going to be good, was it? Nosedive motioned toward the kitchen table sitting down, Duke across from him. Did Duke finally find Wildwings body?! Was that why he threw the picture?! Why wasn't the duck saying anything?!

"..Say something." Dive muttered giving away how frantic he had become in a few seconds.

Duke whence realizing that Nosedive was a bit more emotional almost flying off the handle. Mallory's worries where well placed, he thought though he didn't know how well placed they had been just yet.

"Dive kid, I have information stating Wildwing may still be alive," Duke muttered.

The look of shock on Nosedive's face was replaced by a look he couldn't very well read. Then the kid did something Duke wasn't expecting at all.

He passed out.

The picture of the two happy brothers still sat on the table, though it fell on its face when Dive hit the ground.

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There was no telling how long he had been there. No telling the days, months, and probably years he had been in the cell he now called home for most of his waking hours. Reaching out he tried to find what someone had left for food the night before but felt nothing and figured they must have taken the dish while he had been asleep. It wasn't like he could do much anyway toward them.

A few years ago he had been taken by the saurian overlord as prisoner though Wildwing did not know how long ago it could exactly be. Time just seemed to meld in the cell as he sat there on the bed where they had put him last night after torcher. See three years ago Dragonuas had taken one of his legs, right below the knee, made him watch every second as they sliced through it. He had passed out during that whole situation, though they would stop and wake him back up before they'd continue on. Luckily the searing liquid they pored over the open wound seemed to have cleaned the wound and it healed pretty well. He could see then. The second thing he did take from him was his eye sight with a giant screw.

Sometimes Wildwing wondered how the hell he had survived that. But knew that Dragonuas wanted him alive still to torcher and destroy.

He of course wouldn't say anything during these torchers like Dragonuas wanted. He had wanted information about their base and weaknesses of the others but Wildwing wouldn't tell him anything, which is why he was still alive, though barely and only by the fact Dragonuas still thought he could get information from him somehow.

That's why he could still hear out of one ear. Dragonuas wanted to make sure he could hear him and his demands. But Wildwing would just laugh, trying to think about other things then what they where doing to him. About his team mates, about Puckworld and maybe one day if he was lucky hearing Dragonuas being defeated. Most of the times in his daydreams Wildwing would put the gun in Nosedive's hand, giving him the honor of killing Dragonuas since he was after all blind.

Turning his head he heard an odd sound he hadn't heard before, something pounding on metal. It wasn't the sounds of people coming to get him; he knew those sounds well and usually kicked one of the things that picked him up in a few choice places before they would drag him down the hallway. No, this sound sounded like someone was trying to get into his cell forcefully. Was he being rescued by his team mates?! Had that finally come true?

"..Hello...?" Wildwing quietly whispered hearing something drop down to his left. Was this some sorta sick mind game Dragonuas had just come up with to try and break him?

"..Shhh..." A female voice muttered. An unfamiliar voice Wing noted starting to grow suspious hearing their footsteps toward him. It was only one person, he noted.

"..Who are you? Is this some sorta game?!" Wildwing hissed.

"..No." The girl said, now in front of him. That's when he felt a hand touch his, three fingers and a thumb. He tried to pull his hand away when she held it hard. "Stop it! I'm trying to show you something."

Wildwing sighed deciding to play into this joke so it could at least end quickly and he could get back to his daydreams waiting for some real help.

She brought his hand up a ways, touching something. Instinctively Wildwing pulled his hand back wondering if he had just gotten chemically burnt or something.

"...Idiot that's my beak," She muttered.

"..I'm not going to fall for that," Wildwing said growing pissed.

"Then feel my hand, I have feathers!" She then said growing angry. "I need you to trust me so I can try and get you out of here."

"..Huh...?" Wildwing muttered reaching his hand out, feeling a hand there, and the three fingers and thumb. She did indeed have feathers but Dragonuas had tried this before. Sending a female to gain their trust only to stab them in the back. "..How do I know you're not some duck working for Dragonuas?" He whispered.

"Because I've been here longer then you silly," She muttered. "I just recently figured out how to get into their air ducts and have been wondering around them for the past week when nobody was around. I had heard some of them talking about you and decided to try and find you so we both can get out of here."

"..How long have you been here? Prisoner of Dragonuas?" Wildwing then asked.

"...Ahh...well..." The female ducks voice muttered. "Maybe about ten years or so, I'm not sure. They rarely keep me in a cell or room that has a window."

"..And you can still see?" So he didn't trust her. Ten years and it seemed like she wasn't hurt.

"..Dragonuas has OTHER ways of torturing me," She muttered a hint of sadness echoed in her words. Instantly Wing felt guilty. His mind could only imagine what Dragonuas could do that didn't include screw drivers and hot liquid. "..But let's get out of here. I think I found an air duct that leads outside of this building..."

If she was telling the truth Wildwing felt that he'd only slow her down, who ever she was. He didn't want to doom her because of a slight chance he cold be free and back with his team mates, if they where still alive.

"...You go," He said pushing her hand away. "I don't want to cause your death by slowing you down. If Dragonuas hasn't killed them, I have team mates who'll help you. Then you can come back for me."

"..NO." Her voice grew stern as he felt a hand grab his arm, pulling him up off the odd bed area dragging him somewhere. His other hand flew out feeling a wall. "I'm not letting Dragonuas hurt anyone else. I'd rather risk being killed having you along then sneak out knowing your still here in need of a rescue."

Wildwing felt her let go of his hand, he felt her on the ground by his leg.

"..What are you doing?" He muttered using the wall to keep his balance.

"Step on me," She muttered. "The air duct is right above us. I'm sure you can pull yourself up if you could grab the edge. You look strong enough for that.

"..I don't know..." He muttered.

"Shoot," The girl's voice said. "There are guards coming. Do it or get us both killed!"

Any worries in Wildwing's mind vanished hearing that. He wasn't going to get her killed. Quickly he stepped on her back, launching half up grabbing the ledge she had said would be there and throwing himself in. Then he turned holding a hand out. A ferm hand grabbed it and he used his strength dragging her up. Kneeling there he heard her working with something metal and then pushes past him.

"..Now hold onto this," She said grabbing his hand and putting some type of cloth there. "It'll help you follow me since you can't see me."

"..Who are you..?" He got out feeling the rope pull ahead. She must have been crawling.

"Names Miya, now lets get out of here," He heard her giggle. How the hell could she giggle in such a high risk situation? Only one other person he knew could do that. Nosedive.

Hope began to fill his senses. Wildwing could possibly get out of here alive!

"..I'm Wildwing," He said is voice telling how happy he was.

"Well Wing it'll only be a good few turns and bumps before we get out of here."

Nodding he felt the rope thing pull and he began to crawl as best as he could after his mysterious savior who ever she really was.

For the first time in a while Wildwing was looking forward to tomorrow, when ever that could be.

After all he couldn't see the rays of the sun but he sure could feel them.

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(Authors notes)

Yes Wildwing is indeed alive and Miya is back! Be scared! :P.

Seriously I look back on my first stories Miya and Dive and they've like really changed. Miya in the first DuCaine Legacy had a quiet innocents about her I figure. While this one she's going to have a blaringly obvious innocents about her. Dive in the other one was just a teenager who liked comic books. He didn't change much from the series but in this ducaine legacy he has changed dramaticly. Heck, it took me a lot of rewrites to get the mars saga to where it is now. Why not this story? I've always fiddled with story ideas for the mighty ducks that included a new character. Now I just need to work on the ablility to add a new character without focusing all the story eye on them.

After all this story is about angst Nosedive and his views on life.

Check my profile for the picture url! I try!

huggles her nosedive action figure It's ok Dive I'll make it all better...eventually devilish grin

Nosedive action figure: Someone stop her before she has me...dies

cough Anywho! Please review before you go and as always thanks for taking the time to read one of my stories!


	5. Chapter 4: Ecape

_**Angels, lend me your might  
Forfeit all my lives to get just one right**_

The DuCaine Legacy

By Candy aka solarsun

Chapter 4: Escape

"...Kid?!" A voice called him back from the odd dream he was having. Nosedive could swear that Duke had just told him that his brother, who had been missing for three years, was somehow alive but that had to be a dream, right? After all if Wildwing was alive someone would have tried finding him and bring him back to them or Wildwing would have tried to contact them. His older brother wouldn't have willingly stayed away. Did he hate him that much...?

"...It can't be..." Nosedive sobbed clinging on to Duke's shirt.

"Kid?" He muttered puzzled at what was going on. The older duck had brought Dive to his bed room and had been checking on him when this had happened.

"..Huh...?" The blonde muttered letting go of his shirt his eyes opening seeing Duke sitting on the edge of the bed. Nosedive looked around trying to remember exactly what had happened before. It had to have been a dream after all.

"You alright kid?" Duke asked standing up and looking down at him. "You didn't seem to take it well that your brother could be alive."

It wasn't a dream. Nosedive swallowed looking down at his hands trying to figure out what the hell was going on. If what Duke had said was true...then why the hell didn't Wildwing fight his way back or somehow send a message to them. There had to be a way. There just had to!  
Glancing up Nosedive noticed the puzzled and worried look on Duke's face. He had to make an excuse up.  
"...shock I guess," He forced a nervous laugh out rubbing the back of his neck. "Didn't expect to hear that from you of all people really." Would that be enough to make Duke stop looking at him like he was, Dive hoped so. The blonde duck didn't know if he could handle an outright question answer session if forced into one.  
"Well I better have some good information as long as I took," Duke muttered letting Nosedive feel a bit of relief that he wasn't going to further him with questions.  
"Well we just figured you where taking time away from the team to figure things out," He muttered. "But it's great to have you back, for how ever long it'll be." Glancing down his eyes settled on his blankets in front of him. Having Duke back gave him a bit of hope that maybe the team could be whole again, not to mention the whole shocker of Wildwing. Hell, if they could save him, Dive might be able to come out of this whole situation almost completely himself again, almost.  
"Don't worry to much kid," Duke laughed. "I might disappear for a few days here and there now but from now on I'll be calling in and keeping in touch with you guys." Grinning he stood up from the bed looking around the room for the moment. "Soo Mallory told me that Tanny is going to be flying around and that she's requested everyone clean an extra room for her to stay in."

"Yeah so?" Dive said still feeling a bit overwhelmed not quite sure what he was getting at.

"Yo, I'm asking to use the extra room." Duke laughed.

"Sure!" Dive agreed without even thinking. Anything to not be alone! Getting up he rushed out into the hallway and opened the spare room flipping on a light switch. There was a nice bed and a small dresser there. Though along the walls there was other stuff. In a box, half opened there seemed to be two hockey sticks poking out. Then there was another box, Duke noted, that had one of Wildwing's shirts hanging out of it. Nosedive hadn't thrown his brothers stuff away. When Wildwing had disappeared the two brothers had been sharing this apartment. Then Duke realized something else.

This room hadn't been touched till recently, he concluded from all the dust on the dresser and bed, not to mention the mirror in the corner was filthy.

"..I'm not quite done cleaning it," Dive laughed weakly walking over to one of the boxes and pulling on it, throwing it in the closet along the wall the door was that they had been standing in. Hell...there was even a magazine that Wildwing had always been reading still on the bed, again covered in dust. The older duck knew that sometimes parents did this kind of thing when loosing a child, not touching their room but Duke never really expected it from Dive.

Although now as he was thinking about it why hadn't he expected it? Shrugging he shook his head walking over to the younger duck that seemed to be having a hard time closing the closet.

"Ahh don't worry about it kid, I've slept in worse." Duke finally said pulling him away from the closet. "Besides you don't want to pack too much of his stuff away. After all we are going to rescue him now right?"

Nosedive still was having a hard time thinking about it. It was like the reality of the situation hadn't hit him entirely. Wildwing could come back. Why he hadn't yet still eluded him but his heart for the first time in quite a while was truly filling with joy. Tears began to trickle out of his eyes, quickly trying to wipe them before Duke saw them and made a smart ass comment about how much of a kid he still was.

Of course Dive knew he was still a child in many aspects of it all but he didn't want to be TOLD that. Not by Duke anyway. Nodding he turned away, his back toward Duke as the tears kept coming.

He could be alive! Dive could see his smiling face again telling him to grow up! It could happen. It wasn't some sorta good dream or nightmare. This was reality and Duke was standing right behind him, probably wondering why the heck he was being so quiet and rubbing his face.

But...

...but...

If Wildwing DID come back. He'd return to this Nosedive. A very bitter and broken duck. Someone Dive never wanted Wildwing to meet and never expected him to meet. If Wing came back he'd see it all! Everything he had become. The looser, the bitter defeated looser!

Now the tears where coming fast and they weren't happy ones. Why couldn't he have been stronger and not cracked under all the pressure?! Why had he become so weak?! Why was this all happening now?! A year ago it wouldn't have been so bad. Why couldn't Duke have come back and told him then. Before the Prozac...before the cuts...before the shattering that had occured.

Tighten his grip on his sleeves Dive took a step away from Duke, trying to escape before the older duck had any idea of what was going on in his broken little mind. But he couldn't just be standing there without SEEING it for gosh sake! Now Duke would know everything! Why couldn't he be stronger?!

A sob made it past his beak as he clenched his hands in a fist waiting for the ducks voice to shatter everything. He wouldn't be able to be the Nosedive that everyone needed him to be now. They would all know.

That's when he felt someone embrace him.

"Yo Kid. It's understandable you would cry. You don't need to try and hide it from me. After all even I cry at times." He laughed pulling away.

Dive nodded feeling defeated, weakened, and tired. So damn tired. Even if he had just woken up.

"I'm going to head to bed then," He muttered dryly not putting up the cheerful face anymore. It wasn't worth it anymore. Wildwing would soon be back and with one look at him would know all his sins he had committed since he had left. There was no point in it anymore.

Quietly he walked out the door and into his room slamming it. He shouldn't be so damn angry with himself. But he was. After all a great leader wouldn't have cracked or shown tears.

He was no damn good leader after all.

Duke would have tried to say something when the duck had said he was going to bed but something told him not to. This real Dive wasn't as nice and cheerful as he had half expected. Duke new that the blonde duck had changed, but was finally starting to see how much he had exactly changed in the years away. There didn't seem to be any hope in his eyes anymore.

"Poor kid."

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"Shhhhh," Hissed the strange hero of his, who during their whole trying to escape escapade had gotten them lost in the ducts four times, almost gotten them caught twice, caused them to fall down to another level in the ducts three times, almost fried them once, and almost froze them once and the entire time, when they didn't hear voices she had been talking about how when she had been a kid back on Puckworld before it all she wanted to become a comic book artist. It was driving Wildwing INSAINE! How the hell could this duck, who had supposedly been captive for ten years talk like nothing had happened. It was like she could just bypass everything and be herself again.

Though Wildwing knew that it probably wasn't true. The duck couldn't have been tortured and humiliated for ten years and not have scars somewhere. Though not all scars have to be visible. Hell she COULD be covered in scars right now and he wouldn't be able to tell. Luckily she was pretty good at helping him and navigating through the ducts.

Though Wildwing began to wonder, as he zoned her insistent chatter of her out, WHY did Dragonaus have her captive for so long without killing her? Not to mention the fact that he had had the girl captive since before they came to Earth. Why hadn't they seen her or heard her the many times they had stormed the Raptor and been in the holding cells. The only explanation that came to the white ducks mind is that she wasn't held in a normal cell. Much like he had been. Dragonaus had had many of ducks prisoner and had killed many of ducks too. So why was SHE so special? The thoughts kept coming back to the fact she might be a traitor duck like Lucreta here to destroy him...

But she reminded him of Dive to much.

That's why she was gaining his trust so fast. Then again Dragonaus could use that as well knowing full and well how Dive acted. Sighing he gave up on that idea realizing it really didn't matter at the moment if she was a traitor or not cuz he had walked into it, blind and missing a foot (and probably a lot of feathers). If this was some ploy to hurt him...well, Wildwing sighed, he had been hurt enough. This little "joke" would just be added onto the list, if that where the case.

"I see light!" She squealed causing him to snap from his train of thought. "Right in front of us!"

"Huh...really?" Wildwing whispered looking up but it was still dark. Shaking his head he just continued to crawl forward, slightly lopping around.

"Stop, I'm going to kick this vent out and then help you," She said.

Stopping all Wildwing could do was stay there, listening to the pounding of metal and it seemed to sound like it was twisting. Then he heard something fall on a gravely ground.

"I'll be a second," Miya's voice muttered as he could hear her exit the duct and land on the ground, hitting the metal cover she had removed somehow. After a few minutes she heard her again, this time outside the duct once more.

"Ok, come forward till you hit my hand." She said.

Nodding Wildwing slowly inched his way forward, feeling everything in front of him just to be curtain that he didn't miss her hand and end up landing on her and what ever she had done to help him get down from this opening. After a few feet or so he felt her soft warm hand hitting his right hand. "Great!" Giggling she grabbed his arm carefully. "Now twist yourself so you're lying on your back, head towards where we came from."

Nodding again Wildwing did as she said, though with some difficulty. Those ducts might have been big but he was a large duck as well. Even in his malnourished form. That's when he felt her pulling him out slowly. Inching forward he felt a breeze on his leg, where there was a hole in his pants. There where probably a lot of holes in his pants, he thought dryly. Then gravity took over and he felt himself slip and fall down, only to be slightly caught by some arms, keeping him balanced on what ever they where standing on at the moment.

"..Thanks..." He muttered pulling away and trying to feel his way down.

"It's a bunch of boxes," She said. "Not very stable either if you keep moving around like that. Here let me help you down to the ground."

Wildwing heard her jump and then walk over in front of him. Then a pair of hands grabbed his.

"Ok jump. The ground is only three feet below you."

Nodding he did as he was told, again when he landed she stabilized him. Moving around on one foot was tough work. Normally in protest Wildwing would force the people who came to get him for his torcher sessions into caring him. He hadn't actually really walked on one leg at all.

"Where are we?" He asked sniffing the air and smelling dead fish, that and salty water. So they where near the ocean, or on the ocean.

"Some sorta harbor." Miya muttered. "I see workers passing by the alley entrance all the time. Though I don't know who to trust and it's going to be hard to try and get out of here unseen."

"Is there anywhere we can hide till night?" He asked. "It might be easier then plus it'll give me time to rest."

"Ok, but I don't want to be near this building. I'm sure Dragonuas has his men check around it." Was the response that came from Miya? "If I could get to a phone we could call one of your people you mentioned. It would be easier to escape with help...Ahh I see one! It's not to far out of the alleyway and there's a shady spot over it so I might not be seen right away."

Feeling her arm leave his Wildwing was about to shout after her but only knew it would do worse. Was she an idiot?! Wildwing knew that indeed Dragonuas's army was walking around this harbor, blending in with the workers and if they spotted her, a duck. They would shoot. Not to mention he was sure that Dragonuas knew that they where gone by now. It seemed like forever crawling through those ducts.

"..Ahh I don't have a phone number." A very silly sounding Miya returned. "..It looks like where in some sorta harbor near a very big town, with a statue out at sea with a person holding some sorta thing up in the air."

"..We must be in New York." Wildwing muttered. "I know my brothers phone number if he hasn't changed it here...that and if he's still in New York. You could try calling him."

"..You have a brother?" She asked sounding curious.

"Yeah, the last time I saw him he was 19, I think. Here his number is 247-345-7643," Wildwing muttered recalling his old number here with ease.

"K, k. I'll be right back, you stay near the wall. There are boxes covering you from both sides if you do." She said then rushing away. Wildwing could hear her hurried footsteps as he ducked back, feeling the wall and one of the boxes she had been stating. He was getting anxious about it all. It would only be a matter of time till one of Dragonuas's people would walk through this alleyway or see Miya. He couldn't help her or himself in his present state if that indeed happened.

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Duke had been reading one of the old magazines Dive had kept around his apartment, in the living room when the phone rang. Looking up he watched it debating wither or not to actually pick it up, after all the team would have contacted Dive through the comm...But then again if something would have happened to cause that one person to loose their comm. a phone would be the second best way to get into contact with them.

Standing up he strolled over to the phone, which said pay phone on the caller id and picked it up.

"Hello?" He asked.

"..Ahh yes. I'm calling to speak with the brother of Wildwing," A quiet female voice muttered.

"Sorry he's not taking interviews honey," Duke muttered thinking it was some journalist trying to solicitant an interview with the duck.

"..No no...I'm not trying to interview the duck," Her voice said. "I was told by Wildwing to call this number to try and contact his brother. See we need help and we can't very well get out of this harbor without some considering the condition he's in."

Wildwing? Harbor?!

Ok something was definitely up.

"Who are you?" He stated accusingly.

"I'm Miya!" She cheerfully chimed in as if it was a conditioned reflex. "But that's not important. Wildwing said we where in a city called New York and it's a harbor. We need help or Dragonuas will find us here."

"Honey New York has tons of harbors. You'll have to be more specific." He stated realizing exactly what was going on. Somehow this "Miya" and possibly Wildwing had escaped from where ever Dragonuas was keeping them. He definitely needed go get over there ASAP.

"Ahh I see a sign that says Harbor Bay Docks." She said. "I've got to go now. I think some men might have spotted me!" With that the phone went dead.

Shit.

Duke grabbed his coat looking at Dives door for a second. He wasn't going to wake the duck and tell him. As things stood Nosedive would probably just be a burden trying to save his brother at the moment. It would be best to go alone. Quickly he exited the apartment knowing where Harbor Bay Docks was.

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Forty minutes later he stood in the middle of the docks, gun out, talking with their security about what had happened. He didn't want to go this route in finding them, but he wasn't going to get past security without explaining at least part of the situation. They had let him through fine enough though he hoped that doing it that way didn't cause it to be worse later on. After all Dragonuas probably had people working for him in the security here.

Walking up he saw a pay phone and went towards it to check out if this had been the phone the woman had used, and if it had did it have any signs of damage from a fight.

Luckily though, or unluckily, there was no damage. He didn't know how to take it, considering it was the only visible phone in the area and the fact it was slightly shady probably meant she would use this phone.

Looking up he glanced around trying to see if she had stuck by the phone. If anyone stuck out at him. But nobody seemed to and nobody seemed to care about himself.

But then he caught sight of something, someone in a shadowy alleyway to his right that almost shocked him.

It was a duck. A female duck. Not to mention easy on the eyes even in her present state.

Duke didn't recognize her but if Wildwing had trusted her enough to give Dive's phone number she had to be at least semi trustworthy. Quickly, glancing around, he rushed toward the female duck.

Her hair was caked with oil and grim, dark it was, probably brown or maybe black hanging around her shoulders. He couldn't tell. Her feathers matched Mallory and Dives in a peach and as Duke drew closer her eyes where a sea green. The clothes she wore where ripped and torn that it made Duke wonder how it could stay on her and keep some sorta dignity, but somehow it did.

"..Are you his brother?" She asked looking eye level at him

Ok so she was about his height too.

"No but I'm a team mate of his," Duke muttered. Nodding she waved to follow leading him into an old abandoned shed, missing pieces of the roof caused light to filter in here and there. That's when Duke notices the body in the corner. He was missing a leg, not to mention feathers missing everywhere.

How the hell could this female duck show Duke this while she seems to be completely unharmed?! Was she another Lucreta trying to worm her way into their team.

"Who the hell are you?!" Duke hisses angrily at the duck that jumps surprised.

"I told you, I'm Miya!" She cries waving her hands about.

"..Duke..?" Wildwing's voice breaks in causing Duke to faultier in his anger. The way the bigger duck had been sitting in the corner, he had half assumed that Wing had died.

"..Yeah I'm here," Duke said walking up to him. "You look like shit man,"

"..Really?" Wildwing's head moves up. "I know I'm missing a leg, and I can feel some bald spots, but do I really look that bad?"

Huh?

Blinking Duke noticed how odd the white duck was acting. The fact he hadn't registered he was even in the shed until he had said something and even then he didn't move his head. Taking a step forward he waved his hand in front of the shadowed duck only to see that again his face didn't move. Nothing moved. That meant...

Turning he gazed at the duck who nodded knowing what he had been checking.

"Yeah, it was hard getting him out of there the way he is," She muttered a hint of sadness in her voice. "If I had known he was in the building or the Raptor I would have tried to save him sooner...it's just that..." She paused a shadow falling over her face then breaking out in a grin. "Ahh all it matters is that your here and can get out us out of here easier then by ourselves."

"Yeah..." Duke said watching her some more. He still didn't quite trust the new duck. "Let me call a team mate of mine and figure out what I'm going to do with Wing."

"Hurry up, K?" Wildwing then broke in. "Sitting here like this hurts. I think I landed on a pipe or something."

Duke was about to nod but caught himself sighing.

"Yeah, just a second." He muttered walking outside the shed and around a corner so he was alone. Flipping up his comm. he pushed the button that was Tanya hoping she wasn't in the middle of something or to busy to answer it. Luckily only a few seconds went by and her face, goggled, came up.

"..Duke?!" Her voice broke out in shock. "Gosh Duke it's been a while!"

"Yeah it has darlin' but this ain't a welcome back call. I'm in New York at a harbor of sorts. I got a call from a dame here. a female duck saying she has Wing. I come to the harbor and she does indeed have him but he's in piss poor condition. We've got to fly him out to you Tanny or you've got to come right away. I can't take him to Dive's in this condition. The poor kid will flip out even worse then he already has."

"..Wildwing's alive?!" Tanya's face turned into a mixture of utter shock, pure joy, and worry all at the same time. If the situation wasn't so serious Duke would have made a comment about how it wasn't so flattering on her.

"Yes and I just spoke with him. Now Tanya I need help with this." Duke pleaded trying to get her past the fact Wildwing was alive.

"Ahh well I can call my supur at my apartment there in New York and have him let you in if you're that concerned about taking him back to Dives."

"Yeah," Duke sighed.

"And I'll fly up today if I can," She said.

"Thanks Tanny."

"No problem. And it's great to see you again."

"You too," Duke said shutting his comm. and looking around again. He figured he could just drop off the female duck at Dive's house for the moment. After all Dive seemed to need the company and a fresh duck face might due the kid some good, not to mention the fact that Duke didn't quite trust her yet. Duke would much rather have this "Miya" with Dive then Wildwing. Dive could defend himself, the way things where looking Wildwing couldn't at all. It was either a miracle that they got out of there or she was a spy.

Turning he headed back to the shed trying to figure out how he was going to remove Wildwing from the harbor without Dragonuas's men trying to kill them all. This was one of those moments he was glad to be an ex-thief. He could call up his skills now and with some luck they'd be out of here in only a few hours.

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Chameleon knew his boss was angry. Very angry. That's why he was in another room, acting like he was working on something important. When Dragonuas got angry things would randomly die. The smaller green saurian would leave the whole random dying part to the humans who worked around them. There where plenty of them to do that job and only one of him.

It wasn't just the fact that fucking female duck prisoner escaped but it turned out that she took the white duck with her as well. Somehow. And that is what made Dragonuas angry.

He could hear him in the other room belting out orders to the humans to look for them everywhere in the docks stating that they couldn't have gotten far without being spotted. After all two huge ducks in a harbor was odd enough, now add the fact that one of them has no leg and can't see (plus one of his ears didn't work) and you get a whole freaken' circus of oddity but the reports kept coming back that nobody had seen two ducks in the harbor.

Well actually two of those ducks. There was a report now that the gray haired, one eyed duck was in the harbor looking for something. That made Dragonuas furious and Chameleon heard something (or someone) slam against a wall, then glass shattering.

Who ever said "Don't kill the messenger" had never talked to their lord.

Actually in all reality Chameleon was glad both those ducks had flown the coop (so to speak). Dragonuas was starting to become almost obsessive about that female one. It made him wonder why the hell their lord had taken her prisoner and kept her alive for so long. He didn't want to think about that answer though; mainly cuz if Dragonuas knew what he was thinking he'd be dead in a heartbeat.

Though he'd miss torturing the white one. He was fun to torcher. Dragonuas never let any of them near the female duck, not since they first captured her back on Puckworld, stating that he was the Overlord and he could torcher some prisoners by himself. Nobody cared back then, due to the fact there where hundreds of ducks they could all take turns torturing so one duck, especially that duck, didn't much matter. It was when she was allowed to live right before they had left Puckworld that he began to wonder WHY exactly Dragonuas had chosen that, especially with the blood flowing through the female ducks veins. If any of their races had heard of what their lord had done they would have called for Dragonuas's bloody head stating treason.

But he wasn't supposed to think about this. Just to look like he was busy to keep his own neck from being hung.

"CHAMELEON!" A voice called out from the other room causing the smaller saurian to drop the glass he had been fettling with. Shit. This wasn't going to go well.

Walking out and into the next room he saw the complete disaster area the room had become, human bodies lined the walls and in the middle of it all was a smoking saurian overlord with a murderous glint in his eye.

"Yes?" He said stepping in.

"I want you to do an all out attack on the harbor. If their still here, those ducks will have to come out to help. Then we can find he...them and maybe capture another prisonor in the process." Turning Dragonuas looked over at the crowd of people cowering in the corner. "And you guys! Start packing up! This can't be our base no more! Insolent fools..." Dragonuas grumbled pushing past Chameleon and out the door.

Letting the breath he had been holding go Chameleon picked up a gun from the table and headed out the door to get some human troops. At least this was going to be fun.

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"Shit..." Duke muttered pulling out his sword and taking out his gun. Turning his head he looked at the female duck that was looking out a window next to Wildwing. "Hey girl!"

"I said my name was Miya," Turning she looked at him then catching a gun that Duke had tossed her. "Huh?"

"I can't fight them on my own, can you shoot a gun?" He asked.

"..I'm better at sword fighting, though it's been many years since I last touched a sword." She responded dropping down when an exploding came close to the shed.

Swords?

Blinking he looked at his and tossed it to her waving for her to toss the gun back. There would be no point in handing a gun to someone inexperienced. They might miss or kill an innocent bystander. Turning his head he looked back at the mass panic that was ensuing around the harbor. A thought crossed his mind to call Nosedive but...he couldn't risk the duck seeing his brother right now. Especially during a gun fight like was going on. Although more then likely Nosedive would be there in a few minutes since he was sure that some of the people battling back where part of Nosedive's command force. Turing his head back he saw Miya flexing with his sword, as if to get a handle on the weight and length.

"Maybe you should stay here..." Miya said. "Just in case someone does find Wildwing."

"..Maybe you should stay," Duke frowned.

But before he knew it she was already out the door and turning around the corner. Another problem to deal with...but Duke couldn't very well leave Wildwing there.

"You can go Duke..." Wildwing's voice broke in behind him. "I'll be fine here." Turning around Duke watched as the bigger duck tried to get up on his one foot.

"No," He said forgetting about his anger at the female duck for a moment and walked over. "We've got to get you out of here. While Miya does what ever the hell she's planning on doing I can probably get you over that wall I see and out of here before Nosedive gets here."

"Huh?" The white duck muttered.

"...listen Wing, We need to get you patched up before I can safely let the kid see you, and you look awful and well..." He stopped a moment chewing on his words thinking about how Nosedive had acted around him. "..Let's just say this kind of shock might very well break the sand foundation he seems to be standing on."

Luckily all Wing did was nod. Quickly Duke walked over to one of the shed walls and felt around. When he felt a weak spot he shoved his foot through trying to make a hole quickly and big enough for both of them to pass through. The risk was too high trying to go out the front and around the corner to get to the wall anyway.

Once he was satisfied at the size of the hole Duke walked over to Wildwing and threw his arm around the taller ducks waist, helping him move through the hole and toward the back of the harbor. Nearing the wall Duke glanced around and saw a door but people started to shoot at both him and Wing.

Pushing Wildwing back to cover Duke let them have it with his gun, killing most of the men instantly. He could hear footsteps as well coming toward him. That's when he saw Miya dive out from one of the alleyways and in one quick motion with his sword decapitated one of the men; caused another to loose both his arms, and the last one she shoved the blade right through his chest.

She moved like a freakin' Jedi!

A few years his ass, Duke thought watching her for a second, almost forgetting about the battle around them. When a bullet grazed his cheek he snapped back, firing a shot at the man who got hit from both angles by Duke and by Miya who got him in the back.

She was soaked in blood now. So the girl didn't have the faness that years of training brought to dissolve that issue. It made Duke think back to his early years of when he would be soaked in blood after a big battle, one normally he didn't choose to be in, mind you.

"Could you help me sweetheart?" Duke then shouted pointing toward the door. Nodding she ran towards it and in an easy motion it seemed using the sword the door just fell down into the entryway. Miya ran ahead of Duke who had gone back quickly to retrieve Wildwing and brought him into the check station. Luckily Miya cleared the way for him and cut the other doors down he would have had to take a few moments to pick.

When he cleared the check point entrance way he saw her tackling more of Dragonuas's troops in the distance but he wasn't going to deal with that now. There was a car just a few yards ahead and if he could make it to there and drive off then this whole thing would be finished.

Duke was pretty sure that Nosedive would find the girl, though he needed to talk to her before they left. He needed to ask her not to tell the blonde just yet.

Rushing forward, taking out more men, Duke and Wildwing got to the car. Opening the door, which luckily wasn't locked, he pushed Wildwing into the passenger's side being careful about his head. Didn't want to give the duck a bump on the head to add to his worries. Then he rushed around opening the driver's door, finding no keys in it though. That wasn't a problem for Duke who just quickly went under the dash and in a few seconds had the car started and in drive. Again he was thanking his abilities as an ex-thief. Turning the wheel he quickly plowed through a people toward Miya, rolling down the window again.

"Yo, girl! I need to ask you not to tell the blonde duck named Nosedive who'll be here shortly about Wildwing here."

"Huh?" She gasped striking down a few people looking at Duke in the corner of her eye.

"There will be a duck coming here shortly. I need you to go with him when he comes but I don't want you to tell him about Wildwing here. Not for a little while. The kid won't be able to handle it right now, k?"

"Fine!" She grunted pushing someone who was trying to grab her off of her, slamming the hilt of the blade in his jaw.

"You can return the sword to me later, I'll be back at his place tonight, and you can tell him that. Just say I ran off. He should by that." And with that Duke drove off not letting her respond back.

"..I hope we can trust her..." Duke muttered looking over at Wildwing who was just staring forward as he got onto the highway.

"...She's gotten us this far." Wildwing muttered. "If she is who she says she is then we'll have a bit more help with this war at least."

"Yeah," Duke sighed rushing down the highway toward Tanya's old apartment. How the hell was he going to ease Dive into this one?

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Nosedive looked at the mass carnage in front of him as he pulled up in the harbor where his contacts had said there was a fight but most of the fight seemed over with. Paramedics and police now where talking to people and helping the injured. All he could do now was talk to people and find out what exactly had happened. This part of New York tended to be quiet so it disturbed him to wake up with a phone call saying that there was indeed a fight here. Scanning the distance he noticed a figure wrapped in a blanket sitting on the back of an ambulance. He couldn't tell much from the angle and the fact the person's back was to him but the figured that person was as good as any to start with in his questioning.

Walking up he turned to begin talking with the person, when his bottom beak went slack. His eyes grew wide and he stood there dumbfounded at what he was seeing.

In the blankets was a female duck, a female duck that wasn't Mallory or Tanya.

"You must be Nosedive!" She giggled setting down the thing she was drinking.

Huh? She knew his name? How the hell...That's when he saw on the bumper of the ambulance Duke's sword, caked in blood. That better not be Duke's blood.

"..And who are you?" He asked eyeing her trying to make sure she wasn't some sorta plot of Dragonuas's to break the team apart or kill the team.

"My name is Miya." She smiled all bubbly like. Something about this began to annoy Nosedive. Maybe it was the blood caked on her face and the fact she was smiling, or maybe it was her response. What ever the hell it was he wanted to punch her right then and there.

"And where do you come from? We normally don't have random ducks falling from the sky..." Dive said crossing his hands over his chest.

"..Well from talking to one of the helpful men that said he was this police guy or something or another...well anyway I was in the Raptor when Dragonuas came here from Puckworld. Where ever here is..." She muttered looking around. "It sure does have nice weather though."

"...we've been on Earth for six years..." The blonde duck muttered. "You're telling me Dragonuas has kept you prisoner in the Raptor and then where ever he had you just recently for six years? Without hurting you?" She didn't look like she had any scars or missing limbs from what he could tell. Dragonuas wouldn't just keep someone without torturing them. That was a given.

"...Well scars don't have to be visible," She laughed rubbing the back of her head.

That was an odd response.

"Uhh yeah...so let me guess...you where the reason they broke out in a fight here?"

"Yep!" She grinned. "Aren't I just so worth fighting over?"

Yeah...punch her...

Clearing his throat he glanced around and then back at her.

"Where's Duke?"

".He ran off, said something about returning to your place later," She mumbled off picking up the sword. "I'm supposed to return this to him there."

So Dive was now a babysitter. Was he?

There was a time when a beautiful duck would have gotten him tripping all over himself but with the war and the fact Dragonuas had tried to use Lucreta to kill them...well he wasn't so trusting. A normal duck couldn't make it to Earth without some serious hardware...not to mention knowing which dimention to go to. That's why the likely hood of a rescue by their own clan was unlikely, why this Miya duck couldn't be just sitting here without an explanation.

Six years and she didn't try and escape till just now? Well maybe Duke helped her or something. The blonde duck didn't know what the older duck knew. Maybe that's why he ran off while Dive was sleeping.

"So you come with me?" Dive finally asks and she nods.

Great.

Another fucking thing to worry about.

Not that trying to find your brother in this huge ass city was one problem. Now he's got this strange female duck, though pretty, staring at him like he's supposed to know this all.

For the last time he's no great fucking leader!

Though Nosedive just sighs turning deciding to just forget about the questions for now. All he wants right now is to be home asleep again and somehow he's got to make room for three people in a two bed room house. Looks like Duke will be bunking with him tonight. That or he could pay a hotel to take her for the night. But if he was to make sure that she's truthful, like a good leader would, like Wildwing had, then he would have to keep her close.

And he didn't feel like being close to anyone at the moment.

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(Authors notes)

This chapter was probably inspired subconsciously by the fact I just saw the star wars revenge of the sixth movie. Yep I blame that. I know it took me a while. Candy-chan lives with people who don't much like space movies let alone star wars. Candy-chan is an otaku in a non-otaku zone!

It's frustrating I know. throws hands up in the air

Anyway review before you go (thankies Angel for reviewing so much!) and as always thanks for taking the time to read one of my stories!


	6. Chapter 5: Moving

_**All those colors long since faded  
All our smiles are confiscated**_

The DuCaine Legacy

By Candy aka solarsun

Chapter 5: Moving

All he could think about was three words:

What. The. Fuck.

Turning his head Dive's eyes glanced at the strange female duck curled up on his couch with one of his old comic books, with not a care in the world her beak buried in the pages not even realizing that he had ordered take out for them, well mainly for the woman. His appetite hadn't returned quite yet but he had figured since she was supposedly locked in Dragonuas's clutches for at least 8 years then she'd need to eat something.

But if she would just fucking look away from that comic book and see the food was another matter.

Since they had gotten back from the harbor, which was yesterday mind you, all she did was talk and read comic books. It annoyed the hell out of Dive. He actually was missing how Mallory was so quiet. How Tanya got caught up in her stuff so much she wouldn't speak for hours.

At least she was being quiet now.

Standing up walking over to his room he saw Duke sleeping on his bed still. The man hadn't gotten back from where ever he disappeared to till two in the morning. The moment he had walked in he just asked about the female duck. Somehow that annoyed Dive though he did understand why. Duke wasn't quite as trusting either of the girls and then he told him about how fucking fast she moved through Dragonuas's troop and the fact the troops acted like they didn't know what hit them.

A giant bladed tornado.

But looking at the girl on the couch, who mind you was wearing one of his old jerseys and sweat pants reading his comic book her hair still slightly wet hanging down past her shoulders...well hell it didn't seem like she had it in her.

Is that how Wildwing had viewed him? A big old mess wrapped in an enigma that somehow didn't get himself killed. Is that why Wildwing had thrown himself at Dragonuas and never came back?!

Shaking his head and trying to get the angst thoughts away he took a deep breath causing the gray duck on his bed to open an eye looking up at him.

"What time is it?" The older duck muttered sitting up and yawning slowly.

"A little past Noon," Nosedive said.

"And your still here?" Duke muttered. "Don't you have work?"

"I took my paid vacation today considering all that's going on," Dive muttered. "That and we can try and figure out where Wildwing is. I haven't asked for a vacation since I started working there so they where fine with it."

All Duke did was nod slipping off the bed and walking toward the bathroom. Nosedive turned around to see Miya unchanged still reading the comic. Having enough with the fact that she hadn't noticed he had tried to feed her he walked up in front of her, being the book slightly looking at her face, which instantly looked up at his.

"I ordered in." He said walking away toward the table.

"..Ooo what is it?!" She squealed clapping her hand setting the book down. "All Dragonuas gave me was bread and some soup. I had that "pizza" stuff last night. That was good."

"Today girly girl is Chinese food," Nosedive muttered holding out a small box for her.

"...Chinese food...?" Blinking the female duck walked up and sat down at his table sniffing the contents of the box he had given her. "Smells odd..."

"Its fine," Dive just laughed watching her for the moment. Yeah that's how he sorta reacted six years ago when Phil had introduced them to Chinese food. It had been a rainy day then too. Gazing up he watched as the rain slid down his windows and felt a slight calming.

Picking up a plate he handed it to her and she took it dishing some of the noodlie mess out licking the fork and handing him back the box. Blinking she moved her beak tasting the odd mess.

"This is good." Then finally saying taking another bite. Rolling his eyes Nosedive dished himself out some food watching Duke walk in and do the same. They all sat on different sides of the table Duke and Miya across from each other.

"That comic is awesome!" Miya giggled looking up over toward Nosedive. "I never read something like that back on Puckworld, then again my parents didn't really let me read to many comics then..."

"I never did ask you how you old you where darlin'," Duke laughed looking over toward her. "Not much time when things are trying to kill you."

"Ahh I'm 21," She said. "...well I think I'm 21, during that attack on the capital city, the major one that sent most people into prison camps.." Nosedive visibly flinched remembering that time. His parents had been killed and Wildwing and himself had been sent to the prison camps with Canard at that time. "..How long ago was that?"

"That would be about 11 years ago sweetheart," Duke laughed again. The ducks personality was a freshness he hadn't seen in a while.

"Ahh well then I am 21 like I figured." Miya smiled. "Dragonuas didn't tell me years or anything like that so I had no clue as to how long I'd been in the Raptor."

"You look pretty fine for being in that hell hole of a ship for so long," Dive dryly muttered glaring at her.

How the hell did she escape without even a scratch on her, not to mention being so fucking cheerful?! It was driving Nosedive insane. If he had been locked up for ten or eleven years he wouldn't be smiling or giggling about anything! That's why he didn't trust her. That's why he wanted to kick her ass out of his apartment...but Duke pushed him into this and he did understand that if she really was telling the truth that Dragonuas would probably be looking for her. This was the best place for her lying or not. He just wished he had more duct tape to cover the bill of hers. Her cheerfulness was almost suffocating.

Though Dive knew that he shouldn't have said that, no matter who it was. The look of hurt on her face told him that. Frowning he turned his head quickly not wanting to deal with anything. Dive didn't want to be alone but being with other ducks was also a problem. There was no want to try and put on the cheerful face anymore. He was sick of the lies, of the pain, of how everything turned out, Prozac or not.

"..Now Dive, just because you can't see a scar doesn't mean it's there. You of all people should understand that," Duke muttered causing Dive to wince again. Yeah, he was covered with them. Visible and invisible. Scars that ran so deep that time wasn't going to heal them by itself and he was to damned hurt to even try and fix it.

"Sorry," Muttering he stood up and left the table. Like hell he cared if he offended them right now. He was the one with a brother still stuck in Dragonuas's hands. He was the one who had to come up with a plan since it was HE who was captain.

Duke rubbed the back of his head looking at the female duck that still held a worried look on her face.

"Ahh don't worry to much about him sweetheart, we've all got issues to deal with. This war has taken a lot out of us. I think it shocks him, even mean darlin', to see you who has been in the middle of this thing and yet you can act like nothing had happened."

"Silly," Miya broke in her somber face breaking into a smile. "I understand what's going on. It's not like I'm choosing to ignore everything that happened. I just make a physical choice to not let it get to me. Things happen in war nobodies proud of but it's what you make of your tomorrows that counts."

Nodding Duke took a drink of the glass of water he had.

"Yeah but for Dive it's hard for him." His eye went over to the shadow of Nosedive on the wall of the bedroom. "It's hard for some ducks to be able to push the reality off like that."

His bottom beak quivered hearing what was being said out in the kitchen about this whole situation. Why couldn't he be that strong? Was he just weak?! There was no way he could stay in this apartment another minute, not with Duke who was pitying him and the crazy psycho girl all chirpy and happy. Reaching over for his coat he stormed past the two ducks slamming his front door heading out away from it all.

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Brushing the loose locks of her blonde hair back Tanya looked at the results that where just faxed to her New York apartment. Sighing things weren't as bad as she feared when flying out to check on Wildwing. Walking in her spare bedroom, Wildwing laid there, might be awake or sleeping. It was hard to tell because of the fact he was indeed blind. Been blind for a while, she could tell, by the way he acted. He didn't turn his head towards the person's voice anymore. That spoke volumes on how long he had been blind.

"Wing?" She whispered trying to find out if he was awake. She had to discuss the findings with him to try and plot the next course of action.

"Yeah?" He muttered sounding half asleep.

"The test results where just faxed to me," She sighed sitting down on the chair next to the bed. "The good news is you're fairly healthy for what you went through the past three years. You've got a serious dehydration problem and malnutrition but some pills and a change in your diet should fix that in a few weeks."

"That's good," He said sitting up staring ahead toward her far wall, again somewhere she wasn't. It was breaking Tanya's heart seeing him like this and what Duke had said about the other one they found, the one who had saved him...why the hell did Wildwing get the worse of it? It angered Tanya severely.

"So...I've just finished running the new prototype of Grins eyes and I figured I could make a set to install in you and a biotical leg to help you move. The technology won't be that far from what runs my hand now."

"...What else has happened since my leaving?" He asked his voice void of all emotion.

"Well...Mallory also has bald spots due to third degree burns but I've outfitted her with a sorta cloth that looks like regular feathers. I could also make that for you so you don't look so bad. Nosedive and Duke are the only two who haven't had anything super serious wrong with them...though the war has had a toll on your brother that none of us know the extent of. That where all sure of. He won't talk to anyone since you left."

"Damn Dive..." Wildwing hissed hanging his head. He had been hoping that the reason Dive couldn't see him just yet was something else, not this whole emotional issue now. Dive had always been strong so why now? Could he not live without him? Sure through out the years they had always been there for each other saving each other and protecting one another. That's why he had run after Dragonuas, to try and end this war before it blew up to anything. His brother and the others didn't need to loose anyone else. The look on Dive's face when Mookie left them in that burning comic shop was still burnt into the back of his head.

Pure horror.

"Hopefully with your return his emotional stability will become apparent and we can help him," Tanya broke in. "...Now...do you want to undergo the surgeries?"

"..I don't know..." Wildwing sighed.

"..We need you Wildwing, seeing, hearing, and able to walk." Tanya reached out and touched his hand which caused him to jump a little. The past three years touching usually meant pain. Something like this was almost new to him.

"I know that." Finally he said still looking forward.

"In a few weeks after plenty of food and actual rest I'll start getting ready for the procedure." She said. "Before then I'll be installing Grin's new eyes anyway and I've got to build a new ear drum for you. That'll take me a little bit."

Somehow the genius of the group was going to pull another one of her miracles for him. Like she seemed to have done for everybody.

"Thanks Tanny..." He muttered.

"I'm just glad your back. Things haven't been the same without you," He could hear the fact that her voice seemed to be breaking up. Wildwing was glad he was finally back and able to talk to the others soon enough though Duke had warned him and Tanya not to quite yet tell anyone, especially Dive about all of this, not till Wildwing looked as good as he could be, which meant a month of this probably.

This black void that was his eyesight would not be missed at all and he would be glad to at least see shapes again, if she could perform that miracle. To see his brothers face...to see Tanya's face again. Hell to see anyone's face damn it.

"...so are you going to check on that new duck?" He asked then. "I'm sure she'll need a physical like me since she's been captured by Dragonuas longer."

"Duke told your brother today that I was flying in to see the new girl. I've got a few more hours till I'm expected at his apartment," Tanya said moving about the room. Wildwing could feel that she was fluffing pillows and such around him. "Is there anything you would like before I leave? I can still run to the store and pick up something to eat right now."

"I'll be fine Tanny," Wildwing chuckled. "You'll be back tonight anyway and I've survived off of bread and water for a few years, it won't hurt to not eat a few more hours. Besides you gave me something last night. I don't think my stomach could handle anything much anyway."

"Then I'll pick something up coming back from Dive's house," She then said.

"Tanya? How unstable do you think Dive really is?" Wildwing then muttered after chewing on the thought for a while. He was concerned for his brother and coming back and hearing all this wasn't making things any better.

"..I called in a few favors a month or so back and got his doctors information down in Miami. He's been on the human pill called Prozac for at least a year. Prozac is an anti-depressant. I don't know if it helped or not but I wish he would have come to me about that. We don't know how that pill will react to him."

"..Prozac..."

"Yeah," Tanya responded. "Like I said your brother never opened up to anyone of us after you left besides Duke and he took off a few months after that. In all the chaos and confusion that's when most of us sustained our injuries as well. We looked toward Dive to try and help us...but now I see the problem that caused."

"It's ok Tanny, I'm sure my brother will recover pretty quickly once I can make myself known again," He said.

Well that was hope. If he wasn't to far gone he could be brought back without much trouble. Shaking his head things really seemed to change in three years. At least nobody died while he was gone and maybe they had a new member to help out in the fight.

That was something to look forward to.

Wildwing let out a chuckle.

Yeah look forward too. How ironic.

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"Do I get a lollypop for doing this?"

Ok so Tanya didn't expect that from the duck pulling out her scanner and a few other tools she had dug out of a closet back in her apartment before leaving Wildwing alone. She really didn't want to leave him alone but the security in the building was top notch and the fact Dragonuas couldn't know where she lived was another plus. Also there was this odd female duck sitting in a chair she had to take care of.

The girl looked healthy enough, maybe a faded bruise here and there but by looks she got the better end of the bargain being a prisoner of Dragonuas's which slightly angered Tanya once more as she thought about it. Why the hell was this duck so special?!

Ok so Tanya didn't want to think about that, but she would have to later, when there wasn't a male duck breathing down her back at the moment. Well she could just ask Duke to leave maybe go find Dive or go check on Wildwing if she needed him gone for a bit.

"I'm fresh out of lollypops," She muttered holding out a tongue suppressor and motioned for the duck to open her mouth. Quickly complying the duck named Miya did as she was told. Everything seemed normal there. "But if you behave enough I'm sure someone will get ice cream."

"Iee cheeaaaam iss goood," Miya got out with her mouth still opened and her tongue still being compressed. Chucking she shook her head removing the wooden stick and picking up another instrument from her bag.

"How long is this going to take sweetheart?" Duke's voice broke in behind her.

"..An hour or so," Tanya said watching how the girls hand flexed as she moved it. "I suggest you go and find Dive for the time being. I'll call you on the comm. when it's safe to come back."

"K..." Duke said and without another word Tanya heard the door shut behind them. Stepping back she sighed looking up at the duck.

"Now your going to have to be completely honest with me, you understand?" She said. "I have a feeling of what happened while you where prisoner but I need to hear this from you or I won't be able to run the tests and check you like it is needed. Nothing you say will get past me unless you tell them yourself, understand?"

Miya gulped, all the cheerfulness she had been showing earlier drained from her peach face along with most of the color as she nodded slowly.

Sometimes Tanya hated being right about things.

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Leaning against the bridge the wind wipes by him taking his long locks along for the ride, well till the fact they're attracted to his head factors in. It was the only place he could think of to clear his mind. The smell of water in the air and the view was a bit calming though his mind was still twisting and turning like it normally did. Luckily the sky had decided to take a break from raining or he'd be soaking wet. It didn't matter much anyway though. Even if it was raining he would have came out. Nosedive just couldn't stand the girl. Reminded him to much of himself before everything happened. Reminded him of what he had become and what he had lost. It reminded him of the fact that he didn't know the man in the mirror as he should. Taking a deep breath he leaned on his arm some more trying to get a straight thought out of this all.

But nothing wanted to come and he didn't want to deal with it. Glancing down at the dark fast moving water he wondered if he could actually jump this one day. When he wasn't so damn afraid of death and just end it all before Wildwing found out what he had become and before Dragonuas could kill him, the way the Saurian wanted to which probably meant something quit painful. But he was scared and at this point and time didn't feel the total need to let go of it all. Nosedive still had a chance to try and fix things before his brother came back, if he came back and for right now that was enough to keep him on the bridge.

That and he heard Duke walking up behind him. That duck always had a unique stagger to his walk. Probably due to some past injury during one of his heists. Nosedive had never asked and wasn't planning on it.

"Figured I'd find you here," He said in his thick accent that, though mind you he was from Puckworld and picked up that accent at Puckworld and not on Earth, it mirrored the New York accent to a t. "This is where you went the first night after Wing's disappearance."

"..Heh, at least that didn't change," Dive muttered dryly still gazing out at the river.

"..Change is constant kid," Duke said walking up beside him and leaning on the rail to Dive's right. "If things didn't change now that would be a problem."

"Go away..." Dive hissed turning around leaning on the rail with his back, glaring at the older duck.

"Now I couldn't do that, wouldn't have a place to go."

"That never stopped you before..."

"Touché."

So neither of them where moving and now neither of them where speaking, which drove Nosedive even more nuts. Duke could at least ask him WHY he was so negative now. Why he acted the way he did instead of this acceptance shit. Duke was beginning to act like Grin.

"You know what I think..." Duke began breaking the silence once more. Nosedive just rolled his eyes.

"I don't care."

"Well you should," Snapped Duke glaring at him. "I was thinking that maybe after all the dust had settled in a few days we'd ask Miya about your brother and see if she couldn't give us some insight."

"pfff." Rolling his eyes once more Dive turned back facing the river leaning his head against one of his hands. "With miss "I'm so crazy I'm sharing the love" escaping I'm sure Dragonuas is upping his security where ever Wing's at. Not to mention the fact Dragonuas could have killed him at any time."

Well the kid had a point there but Duke knew that couldn't happen. Dive would just have to keep believing that Wildwing was in Dragonuas's hands until he was well enough to move on his own. That achievement was going to take at least a month or two. Even with the fact Tanya was a miracle worker when it came to those sorta things.

"Ahh don't be so down kid," Duke finally said patting him on the back. "We'll get Wing back. Hell look how long Dragonuas supposedly held onto Miya and she seems pretty well."

"Yeah that's if she's not lying to us," Dive muttered.

"Well in any case, she needs clothes, unless you like to look at her in your old clothes," Duke laughed eyeing the younger duck that just rolled his eyes once more. "I think you and her should spend some quality shopping time together."

"Hey wait a minute!" Dive jumped glaring at Duke. "Tanya can go with her!"

"Tanya's heading back to Miami when she's done examining and testing her. She's to busy to take Miya shopping." Duke then explained.

"Then she can go with her." Dive blew up. "Who said she was going to be staying with me. As you haven't noticed I don't like her."

"Only because she reminds you of you," Duke laughed finding it kind of funny how he was blowing up about everything though that comment shut him up instantly and caused him to gaze back at the river below. "I remember a Nosedive who wouldn't have blinked twice when it came to someone who shared the same interest as him...not to mention a pretty face."

"Most pretty faces here are human or traitors..." Dive mumbled quietly loosing his fighting spirit.

"What about Mallory? And I'm sure Tanya's quite pretty in her own regard."

"mhhh.." Came from the kids lips. "..It's just change has never been very good to me as of late. Maybe that's why I fear it so much."

"..Like I said before, change is a constant. All we can do is fix our view on it so it doesn't seem so bad. You used to be good at that." Duke said looking at Nosedive who was still staring absently out at the river.

"And I grew up."

"..Who said you had to loose that when one grew up? Anyway I've got a few things to take care of and you have a date with the walking sugar high," Duke laughed patting him on the back. "I'll be back at your place tonight when I'm done."

"Yeah..." Dive mumbled giving up on the whole Miya situation for now.

"And you should probably start looking for a three bed room apartment, can't have the new girl by herself right now." Duke yelled back at Dive after he had walked a block or so. "I'll be looking for a place in the mean time."

Taking a deep breath Dive wanted to roll his eyes at the older duck but figured it would be useless now anyway. He would have to take her shopping though but there was a chance that Dive could talk Mallory into taking Miya...although...

Mallory would probably kill the girl before the day is through.

Shit.

So he was stuck with her for now. Well hopefully she'd calm down a bit. If she didn't Dive didn't know what he'd do.

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Ok so the girl wasn't calming down. Actually when he had mentioned getting her a wardrobe so she wasn't mooching off of him she began to freak out muttering something about the fact she loved a sweater she had seen on the TV and loved a skirt that she had seen in his comic book of all places. But he knew it had to be done, hell he was running out of wearable hanging out clothes himself which meant he would have to do laundry again. Luckily this apartment came with a washer and dryer so he didn't have to deal with Laundromats and people who rightly didn't want to be their either.

He also had to stop by a rental agent and see if he could find a three bed room apartment in New York not to far from where he was to begin with. The government was picking up the tab on his housing situation so any price would be good, luckily for him. That was partially the reason why he wasn't flipping out so much about it. Dive knew that without the governments help on this he probably would have just booted her out toward Mallory's.

"We ready?" She asked breaking his train of thought.

"Yeah," Was all he muttered opening the door and watching the brown haired duck with again one of his jerseys on bounce out the door. Shaking his head he followed her. There was a mall at least not to far away he could take her which would give her plenty of choices in clothes so he wouldn't be driving around all day trying to find something she liked. Though he wondered how much exactly this whole thing was going to put him back. Sure he had a lot in the bank but the right (or should he say wrong) choice in clothes could set him back over 1000. Especially in New York.

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Ok so she had heard through the grapevine...aka Tanya that there was a new duck staying with Dive. Not to mention the whole shocker that Wildwing was now at the blonde's apartment while Tanya, who has other important things to do, has to take care of him. Duke should have called her, but Mallory figured he had important things to do. Probably was checking out the new ducks story as she thought about it to make sure it wasn't another trick of Dragonuas's. At least Wing was back. Even though they couldn't speak of it to Dive.

Yawning she took another sip of her coffee and stood up deciding it was time to head to the YMCA and warm up for her early morning exercise routine that she did to warm up for her early morning class. At least that was going well. Plus a few more people had approached her to join her small military force. She was willing to train them but first they would have to have an extensive background check. She wasn't going to let Dragonuas try and weasel his way into her small army by use of people who say they want to join. If there was huge gaps of no jobs or they went missing in the past five years then she'd deny it.

Better safe then sorry.

Hearing the phone ring Mallory got up and answered it. It was Duke. A smile played on her beak as she heard his voice. He was just calling to see how she was of course; he never had been one for small talk. Ahh well it was good to hear him at least if she couldn't see him for a few weeks.

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"Dive! Dive!" Her voice baited him from the dressing room. It was like the fifth outfit that she had to model for him as if he was some female friend or something, or a boyfriend, which he was neither the last time he checked. Walking out the brown haired duck had her hair pulled back with one of his hair ties while wearing some sorta mini skirt and baby t. The store clerk clapped as if she was some sorta audience for the girl who giggled and posed.

Though Nosedive noticed on her arms and legs tiny little scars probably from being a prisoner so long but he again began to wonder why she didn't look any worse. Hell Grin and Tanya got worse injuries and they haven't even been captured and prisoner of Dragonuas's. So why the hell was she any different smiling giggling waving at him? How the hell could she still smile? It pissed Dive off even more.

Turning his back toward her his eyes gazed over at some clothes. Well he did need to buy something. The clothes he did have tended to get ripped and destroyed during the battles. Walking over to the stack of pants picking them up he looked at the style and price deciding to try them on. Walking over to the dressing room beside her he slipped in and quickly tried them on.

Looking in the mirror and not heading out he liked them.

"..Hey Dive! Come out!" Miya's voice called to him behind the door. "I want to see you model your clothes!"

"I don't want to!" He yelled out.

"Aww come on!" She wined. "Just come out."

Rolling his eyes Nosedive gave up on the little war and opened the door seeing Miya in a different outfit this time staring at him and then began to clap, giggling.

"Yay!" She said looking over at the clerk who nodded giving a thumbs up. Well it was at least a nice change from being by himself buying clothes. A smile began to grow on his beak as he stood there and then began to laugh as she let out a wolf whistle which got everyone in the store glancing over at them.

Blinking Dive found him quite embarrassed and blushing. Not only was that but Miya continuing on with the cheers. Quickly he turned around and headed back into the changing room. Once inside Dive stripped and put his pants back on. There was no urge to head out right away as he stood there trying to shake the embarrassment off. It had been a while since he felt like that. Quietly he began to chuckle at what had happened. It was kind of funny. Sure Dive tended to naturally get stares because he was an alien and an over sized duck but...

That duck was annoying at times. Didn't she know that whistling like that in a store would get those kinds of stares? Ah...well somehow he expected that of her. A few years ago he wouldn't have cared and probably would have done the same thing. Hell he had done the same thing to Thrash and Mookie on one of their shopping sprees. How Dive wished to be back then. How he wished he could just forget all this and be the duck he used to be.

How Miya was.

Walking out he saw Miya there waving by the cash register.

"..So what can I get?" She asked when he was close. Taking a deep breath and looking at the clothes next to her and back at the duck.

"Everything," He said finally. "You need a wardrobe and using mine is only going to work for so long." Reaching over he took the pair of pants and a few more of the same kind. "..We'll have to stop at a few more places too."

"Really?!" Came out as a squeal from the duck causing Nosedive to nod and chuckle.

"Yeah yeah I'm feeling generous today." He waved it off laughing again.

That's when he felt someone embrace him. In shock Nosedive looked down seeing Miya crying, hugging him close. He hadn't had someone this close in quite a while. It was making him nervous. Not only that but the people around them where giggling and pointing like they knew something he didn't.

Pushing her away he sighed seeing exactly how much that her new wardrobe was gonna cost him and handed the cashier the money. This whole shopping spree, buying a new bed room set, and putting down a deposit for a new apartment (though the government will refund that at least) and hiring movers was gonna cost him a pretty penny today. Motioning for the store carriers to follow him they headed back to his SUV and had them load it all in the back, and then locking again heading back into the mall with Miya.

Hopefully they'd be done soon. He had told the relater that he wanted a list by four this afternoon and would like to be shown the best one then. If appropriate enough he'd sign the lease and get all that done tonight. Glancing over at the duck that now was looking at some sun dress he shook his head again wishing that she could have gone back with Tanya. At least if she had been with Tanya it would have been another female duck.

Dive didn't know how living with a female duck so close, especially one he didn't know and grew annoyed of easily was gonna turn out in the long run.

Hopefully at least Wildwing would be found soon and he'd be there with them both. At least he could try and keep the peace.

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So he was drained. More then drained. Physically drained and emotionally drained. Nosedive had been both in his trials and tribulations when it came to the war with Dragonuas and the war with himself...but this was different. Part of him really didn't care actually how drained he was because even though she had been annoying and almost childish at times...

He hadn't had this much fun in quite a while.

Glancing over at the sleeping duck in the passengers seat, and then over at the relater who was walking toward his car Dive got out quietly and shut the door, locking it of course so no one could hurt the duck. Turning he smiled at the man who had helped him find his first place in New York and glanced around the parking lot.

"This is the best place you could find?" Dive asked.

"Yes," The man said pushing his glasses up on his nose more looking down at the lease. "Shall we head up and look at the apartment then?" Nodding Dive looked back just checking on the duck that seemed to be just fine in her dream land. It wasn't going to be very long anyway. Nosedive knew what he liked and if he liked the place it would only take a few minutes. Walking over to the elevator the realtor pushed a button and they headed up to the top floor. "It's overlooking the river, not but a half an hour drive to your work, it has three bedrooms, with a separate bathroom attached to one of them as you requested. Very open and very spacious."

The elevator stopped and they both got out walking toward the end of the hallway. Quickly the realtor pulled out a set of keys and unlocked a door opening it to an open apartment.

Walking in the first thing Dive noticed was the huge glass panels that made up one of the walls. This was one of those new age artsy apartments. When the realtor said "open" he wasn't kidding. The kitchen was almost floating in the middle of the plan. Around it was a sunken living room and a dining room to the left. When Dive walked in further, going past the closet area to the left of him and the bathroom to the right he noticed a loft beyond the corner sunken living room (which had a fireplace).

Wow.

"I'll take it," Dive said turning back to the man gazing up at the high ceiling it held. He had dreamed of an apartment like this when he had been 17 and realized they had existed.

"I figured you would," The man laughed. "Considering how your other apartment is set up." Reaching into a file he handed Dive the lease. "Sign it now and it'll be ready to move into by tomorrow."

"Good." Dive said walking over to a counter and did as he was told then pulling out his wallet picking out a check and filling it out quickly handing it to the man for the deposit/first months rent/last months rent. "Could you contact a moving company for me and have them over tomorrow to move everything?"

"Will do," He said writing something down.

"Well I've got someone sleeping in the car so I better head," Dive said pointing toward the door as the man nodded grinning.

"She's new," The realtor laughed. "I mean the last time you wanted an apartment here in New York you where going to live with your brother."

Nodding Dive rubbed the side of his head.

"SHE'S a pain," Dive laughed. "And my brother should be joining me in a little while too."

The realtor nodded picking up his phone and making a call to someone allowing Nosedive to walk out of the apartment and back down to his car, which hadn't been touched and Miya was still asleep in.

Yeah drained...and in the next few days it was gonna get worse, he knew. Moving was never a very happy thing for him.

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(Authors notes)

Heh. You notice how Nosedive was completely like 'What the hell?!' with Miya in the begining of the chapter and toward the end he wasn't so pissy about her?

Yeah. I'm a big old sap at heart ;;. I want romance and lovey dovey stuff! But I can't write that ALL the time...

Or can I?

:P Ok I'm done rambling again. Thanks for reading my story (Thankies again Angel for reviewing! Your the only one who leaves a review while the rest of you don't sniff sniff) and pretty please review (with cherries and chocolate on top) before you leave.


	7. Chapter 6: Blown Up

_**Never were we told  
We'd be bought and sold**_

_**  
When we were innocent**_

Chapter 6: Blowing Up

Smiling the blonde female duck rushed into her apartment, where Duke was staying for the time being, telling Nosedive that he had found a place but couldn't have another duck be seen around there. With how Duke was always disappearing the younger duck of the team didn't even question why which made things a whole lot easier. She had flown back with one of the smaller drake computers she had finally gotten done while trying to still figure out what the clear liquid was that Nosedive had sent down to her lab.

Today was a good day though. It had been a few weeks since Wildwing had taken up residency at her apartment. A few weeks of close monitoring and a strict diet of only the best foods to help him recover fast. Along with a vitamin pill everyday the last test Duke had done for her and sent to her in Florida told her it was time to start talking about the procedures she would have to do so Wildwing could move around better and actually see again. Tanya had figured she'd do the eye operation at about the same time as Grins new eyes though Grin's operation won't take nearly as long as Wildwing because of the fact Tanya had already installed the transceiver in the bigger ducks brain to connect to her inventions. If it wasn't for the fact that the devices she was going to install where actually the size of their eyes and had to be put in their eye sockets like regular eyes Grin could just disconnect his old goggles and connect the new eyes. But after many of years slaving over the technology to get it down to the size of a regular eye and the fact they worked like regular eyes (but better) she was floating on cloud nine. Not even Dragonuas could ruin her mood now.

Walking up to her door and unlocking it she heard two voices, probably in her dining room, talking about something. They didn't even waver as she opened the door and walked in.

"Hey Tanya," Duke said turning and smiling at her. "Wondering when you'd get here." Laughing lightly Tanya looked over at Wildwing who had a cane next to him leaning against the table, sipping on coffee more then likely. At least he was moving around now and he looked a lot better.

"I come with great news," She said sitting down pulling the bag up she had been caring. "Your Drake computer is done Duke, Wing I'll have yours done when I come back to give Dive's his." Reaching in the bag she handed Duke the very small device. At the beginning of the whole plan to build computers Tanya had started working on the group thinking they would be about the size of a human desk top computer but with a few advancements in some of her technology she was writing and building that became obsolete. Nodding Duke set the little powerful computer (think of a psp and that'll be about the right size) down on the table.

"What else is going on sweetheart?" Duke asked looking at the bag.

Pulling out a set of papers Tanya looked over at Wildwing and back at Duke.

"The final tests on the new eye prototype have been completed with success not only that but the last test Duke sent me came out very positive. You can undergo the sugary now." Tanya rattled off handing Duke the papers to look at. This was a very good day indeed. Not only did the eye test come out well but the leg prototype she had developed as well was doing great.

The only real problem she was now having was the replacement for the ear drum. Things had gotten very busy down at her lab. She actually had to hire a few more scientists to continue running some tests while she was away.

"Really? That's great Tanya," Wildwing's voice broke in. "I wouldn't be in such good shape right now if it wasn't for you and Duke taking care of me. I've felt better then I have in a long time." Looking over at the tall white duck staring off into space Tanya remembered what Grin had told her that one day back a few weeks ago and gazed back down. At least he's here. Tanya could tell him how she felt after all the surgery, to give him a bit of time to adjust to everything new. There was no need to make him worry any more then he should. "...I was wondering something..."

"Huh?" Tanya asked looking back at Wildwing.

"You never did tell me how Miya ended up coming out of there." Wildwing broke in. "I mean...how bad was she. I couldn't see my rescuer after all."

Tanya whence visibly and looking over Duke noticed it. Ok so there was something going on here.

"I'm really not at liberty to say. I told her I wouldn't mention anything to anyone...but..." Tanya took a deep breath. "She's no Lucreta if that's what you're getting at. I would believe her."

"But ten years..." Wildwing muttered sadly. "Partially I wanted to believe she was at least a semi Lucreta so there was be an excuse to why she was in there ten years and hadn't tried to escape before."

"Well I'm sure she had tried Wing," Duke mentioned. "But I think after so many years one would loose some hope in escaping."

Wildwing nodded and Tanya agreed verbally.

"Anyway so when is Wing here gonna fly down to your lab...or are you gonna do the surgery here in New York?" Duke asked.

"He will fly out to Miami," Tanya laughed. "I already have a team picked out. It'll be another week though. I want to also get the leg out of testing so we can also do that during your time down there. I figured you'd want to fly back up to be with Nosedive then."

All the ducks went quiet thinking about the blonde brother of Wing who was still in the dark about everything. Not only that but he really was bugging Duke to try and find something about Wing in Duke's contact list he had. They couldn't wait much longer or the blonde duck would start getting supious. Hell when he found out that Wildwing had been ok these whole few weeks without him knowing his trust probably would be shot.

"..Anyway..." Tanya coughed pulling out something from her bag. "I also made some of that clothe that Mallory and I use for your burn spots Wing. We can do that today if you want."

Wing nodded.

"Yeah that's fine." He said.

Pulling out a pair of scissors Tanya began to work on the patches.

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There had been a very unsettling in Washington as of late, Grin could feel. It was unnerving. Something was definitely going down behind the scenes but nobody would tell him or even mention it but the way the people held themselves told him a lot more then their excuses.

A lot of the government workers that Grin tended to be around everyday where growing more nervous and he highly doubted it was himself. He had proven he was trustable and likeable within the first week...but...

Grin didn't like this vibe. It was the same vibe he had gotten before Puckworld was taken over for that time. There couldn't be anyway that Dragonuas could do that...right? Not in Washington D.C. of all places. Not with him watching...but then again he was getting the vibe and nobody was willing to tell him why. It was making Grin frustrated and when he grew frustrated it was easier for him to loose his cool...which wasn't a good thing, not in the capital of the United States when they where always watching him. A few politians where just itching for a reason to lock him and the rest up, he knew that.

When they had went to the government the first time after the huge change in tactics a lot of the people where weary of them but with the presidents support they got what they needed and rarely asked for anything else. After all they where doing a hell of a lot better then the United States could do with their technology. If it would have just been the U.S. up against Dragonuas...well Grin figured the world probably would have been taken over by now.

But beside all that there was a bigger problem growing around him and he couldn't find one person who was willing to talk.

This wasn't good.

Not at all.

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Reaching over toward the table he picked up a newspaper and glanced out the giant windows. He had bought some big old curtains for it and had someone motorize them so he wasn't yanking and pulling on anything to try and close those if needed. Sitting down with muffin thing that Miya had attempted to try and cook a few days ago he looked at the paper for a bit. Taking a bite out of the muffin he was greeted by a very chocolaty taste. Shaking his head he continued to read the paper enjoying the moment of silence before the duck would get home.

So he had grown accustom to the odd duck and she didn't bother him so much anymore. At least things weren't so serious when she was around. His mind didn't wander to the hell hole his life had become. Instead it tended to wonder toward what she'd do next to make him laugh.

He was still laughing at her attempt at baking muffins a few days ago. The duck had never really learned how to cook, he had been told by her AFTER his kitchen had been caked with muffin goo. So the last two batches she had planned on making he had to help her with just so his entire apartment wasn't caked with muffin goo.

Then he had to call some professional cleaners to clean his kitchen since it was really awful. There was no way he was going to try and clean that mess...and well Miya...she was a walking disaster area in herself. Dive stayed clear of her room just because of that fact. He had seen it a few days after they had moved in...and well that was enough for one year. At least she kept the rest of the house a nondisaster area.

Damn it. He couldn't concentrate on reading and decided to give up for the moment biting into the muffin again. So he needed to think about something else. Though there was really nothing to think about. Sighing he glanced down at his wrists since he was wearing a t-shirt today. The scars from many battles where all over his arms...not to mention a few of his own scars.

So he wasn't quite proud of those moments...but hell...what was he suppose to do when feeling so fucking awful for so long. Feeling so alone for so long. Feeling absolute nothing for so long. All Dive wanted to do was feel. The pressure from being team captain drowned him in nothingness normally. A nothingness he didn't want to be apart of.

Standing up he walked over to his kitchen and pored himself a cup of coffee. Maybe Duke would be around today. The duck tended to disappear a whole lot as of late and when he'd show up at his place he wouldn't say a word about what he had been doing, kind of like when he had left those years. That didn't bother Dive so much anymore. Duke had other things he was doing, like Dive should be doing. Mainly trying to find his brother. That was probably the only reason he wasn't so depressive as of late. The fact that Wildwing could return and he had to change a few things of himself before he would even allow Wing to see him. That and the fact that with Wildwing coming back...he wouldn't be team captain anymore. With that crushing weight off him then he would be at least a little bit free to try and find out who he really is now a days.

He almost jumped hearing the door open and closes behind him. Blinking he turned to see Miya there in her uniform smiling at him with a bag in her hands. A week ago she had decided to go find a job since she had said it was boring just sitting around the house, even though Nosedive had told her it would have been a better thing if she would just stay home. It wasn't like he was hurting for money but his main concern is that Dragonuas would try and take the duck again. That's why he had done something that hurt him and took a lot of courage.

Dive had given Miya Wildwing's communicator.

Tanya was busy right now, for some odd reason he couldn't get a hold of her very often, and Wildwing wasn't around to need it at the moment. What hurt him the most was the fact he had to wash his brother's blood off the buttons before he even handed it to the duck.

When handing it to Miya he told her who Wildwing was and the story behind what had happened. She had listened quietly and finally when he tried to get up and walk away, to be alone, she had grabbed his arm trying to give the comm. back to him saying she would be fine and she didn't need it but he had insisted on it. Miya had told him that when his brother finally came back she would give it back to him then.

Yeah when. Taking a deep breath he turned his head forcing a light smile on his face.

"You know you could get a better job in New York," Nosedive said seeing her purple shirt that said "Chris's Comix Store". Bigger companies would love to hire a duck just because of the fame it would get them.

"I like this job," She said walking toward her room not even blinking twice.

Shaking his head he just laughed lightly looking out the window again. Somehow that didn't shock him with her. Hell a few years ago he could have seen himself working with Thrash and Mookie if he had had the chance. But that would never happen now and he wasn't the same duck as he used to be. There was just too much going on to think about stuff like that. Besides the job he had it wasn't like it was super hard or anything. Dive was pretty sure they probably made up the position just to have him on the payroll. It got him good money anyway.

"And I get a discount!" Miya's voice broke in lifting up the bag she had carried into the apartment and left on the counter.

"...Let me guess...you spent your paycheck already..." Dive muttered looking at how full the bag was. A giggle came from Miya who began to blush lightly digging in the bag for something.

"Not all of it...but...yeah... You did say we didn't really need the money anyway, right?" She asked looking up at him.

"Yeah yeah..." Dive laughed waving it off. "You can go blow all your paycheck on comics for all I care."

"Well I didn't spend it all on me either..." She said pulling something out and walking over to him. "I read all your old comics and found this one in the archives at the comic store. Figured you might want to see what happened next." Reaching out she handed Dive an old comic book skipping away with her bag of comics in hand.

Blinking Dive looked down at the book. It was book four of the series Mookie, Thrash, and he had been reading back in Anaheim before everything had happened. Mookie had called him right before the whole incident saying that his order had been in and tomorrow they where going to get together and read them.

Rubbing his eyes he felt the tears welting up again. Miya couldn't have known what this comic meant and represented.

But it still hurt.

Tossing the book on the table next to him he began to walk toward his room. Dive needed to be alone to calm himself down a bit. There was no need to drag Miya into his hell hole anymore. Nobody needed to be drug in this. Even though this was a war Dive couldn't just forget the casualties. That never did change from now and the time he landed on this planet. Did Wildwing ever feel this way about Canard? If he had he never showed it. Wing always seemed to be the stronger brother of them. How the hell could he forget about his two human friends, his only two human friends, who ended up dieing because they knew him?

"Dive?" Her voice chirped in behind him.

Shit. Dive squeezed his eyes shut. In all the years he had felt this way never had one of his own kind found him crying. How the hell was he going to get out of this one without her asking questions? Reaching up he wiped the rest of the tears away pushing his feelings about everything down. Turning he smiled.

"Ahh got a piece of dust caught in my eye," He lied hoping she would buy it.

She just stood there looking at him. Her green eyes watching him for a moment and then she looked away.

"You don't have to lie Dive," She said finally dryly.

Opps...caught.

"I'm no..." But before he could lie again the duck did the oddest thing. Staring forward he felt a pair of arms embrace him. The shock of what was happening caused the dam he had built to try and hold back the unwanted emotions to break. Standing there he began to shake in her arms as tears pored down his face as the cracks in the dam grew larger. It wasn't fair!

Leaning forward Nosedive dug his face in the crook of her neck just letting himself cry silently wrapping his arms around her. It was to late anyway to try and lie. He figured he'd just take the warmth she was giving to him.

He wasn't Canard. He wasn't his brother. Nosedive was just still a scared teenager in many ways who had lost his only family on an alien planet. Who had also lost hope?

Who had lost himself?

Who now realized what he had exactly lost.

Standing there for what seemed like forever he pulled away slowly still feeling drained but he was too drained to try and shed a tear. Leaning back his eyes gazed at Miya who was now smiling lightly though Nosedive noticed how red her eyes where as well. Had she been crying also? He had been so wrapped up in his pain he hadn't noticed anything but her arms around him helping support him.

"..Miya..." He muttered when she put a finger up to his beak.

"Shhh..." She muttered giggling. "It can be our little secret, k?" And with that the odd female duck that was living with him skipped away as if nothing had ever happened. Leaning against the doorway of his room he blinked looking back at her.

What the hell?!

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Leaning his head on his hand trying to read the book Nosedive's mind wouldn't stop bugging him about what had happened the day before. Didn't she want to know why he was crying? Hell if any of his team mates had been crying in a doorway he'd at least ask why not a smile and giggle.

Hearing the door open and close Nosedive stood up only to see Duke there with a bag of something in his hand. Frowning he sat back down pissed that Miya was taking so long at her work.

"I brought dinner," Duke said looking about. "What's got you pissed?

"Nothing..." Dive huffed setting the book down realizing he wasn't going to read it anytime soon.

"I've been around you long enough to know when your pissed kid," Duke said sounding amused. "Did Miya blow something up again?"

"No."

"Fine then don't tell me." Walking over to the counter he set the bag down and began to pull items out revealing Taco World food. "..Hey Mallory suggested that if she gets to be too much for you here that she could fly out and stay with her for a bit. I can't be out there everyday after all."

Huh? Nosedive blinked.

"Ahh no she's not a pain," He said looking toward the door. If Duke had asked him that a week ago he would have tied Miya up with a pretty little bow and sent her off with a song as fast as possible.

That fact also didn't get past Duke who just chuckled lightly though didn't say anything more about it hearing the door open and close behind him. Turning his head he saw a very chipper Miya waving.

"Hey Duke!" She giggled walking past them and toward her room. "I'll be right out. Gotta change out of these clothes."

"No hurry sweetheart," Duke laughed sitting down and biting into one of the tacos.

"Any news?" Nosedive broke in who was sitting across from him. Of course he would ask that, wouldn't he and the look he was getting from the blonde duck told him that if he didn't have some news at least that he was going to do it himself which would just get Dive killed.

"Yeah...but it's a bit sketchy," Duke sighed. "Someone told me that Dragonuas has a hideout in a small outside of New York though I have to check on how reliable the source is before we go and get ourselves killed." He hated keeping him in the dark but hell Nosedive was in really no mental state to handle the sight of Wildwing as he had been two weeks ago. Duke was willing to take all the shit Dive would give him once told but till then he would have to lie.

"That's at least something," Nosedive grinned picking up one of the tacos and taking a bite of it. Hearing footsteps behind him Duke looked over his shoulder to see Miya walking toward them in one of Dive's old jerseys and a pair of shorts.

"..So that's where that went..." Dive muttered across from Duke.

"What can I say, it's comfy." Miya giggled sitting down to Duke's right and grabbing a taco.

"So doll my sweetheart, a duck you've never met, has suggested you possibly go live with her for a while." He said watching her.

"You mean the red haired one?" Her eyes gazed over at Dive who nodded slowly.

"I mean it might be nice to live with another female for a while and she doesn't have a roommate," Duke continued.

"Ahh well..." Miya said looking down at her plate her body stiffing up visibly. "I don't want to be a bother to anyone really...It might be a good idea..."

"Your not a bother here Miya," Nosedive said. "But if you want to go live with Mal-mal that's fine I guess."

Whoa...what the hell happened here Duke thought smirking lightly. Clearing his throat both the ducks looked at him.

"You don't have to decide now. Hell if you want to live here for another year or two and then go live with Mallory I'm sure it'll be fine...unless I'm living with her then." He grinned. "Anyway I'm sure you know about all of us as a team since living with the kid here but we don't know anything about you besides you love comic books. I'm sure you had parents somewhere on Puckworld before Dragonuas kidnapped you."

"Yeah I had parents...I wasn't like spawned or anything though sometimes I think Dive thinks that," She laughed. "I had a mother and father who worked hard but I don't really remember what they did. After all the war started when I was seven or so. I was captured at twelve and well here I am." Shrugging she took a sip of her pop.

Duke got an odd feeling there was something more to the story then what Miya was telling them but he wasn't going to pry. Those times back then where hard on everyone, even if you where a thief so he left it like that.

In the next two weeks where gonna be one of the toughest times for the team, without Dragonuas trying to attack things though as of late he had been a bit quiet. Most of his contacts couldn't tell him anything either which made the older duck worried. Normally Dragonuas didn't become silent unless there was a bigger plot about to be executed. He just hoped they could stop it in time if his thoughts where true.

"Anyway I've got to head. There is more people I need to threaten before the sun sets fully," Duke laughed standing up. "I'll leave you kids to your own discressions."

"You leaving already?! I wanted to play Yatzee again!" Miya frowned. "Dive sucks at it."

"That's because he can't cheat very well," Duke laughed.

"Hey...HEY you can't cheat!" Nosedive said realizing what exactly had been said. Both Miya and Duke laughed. Grinning Duke looked at both of the ducks in front of him remembering how the rec room used to be back at the pond. Much like what had just happened. It gave him a bit more hope that things could return to semi-normality with all of them.

"Anyway I shall take my exit now." Duke waved heading toward the door. "Now stay out of trouble you two." With that last statement he slipped out of the door and headed down the hallway toward the elevator.

Nosedive turned his head from the door toward Miya who was playing with a napkin now. There was a war going on around them and yet somehow she was able to push that aside and fully focus on the napkin. It caused him to smile lightly watching her. She was bent on making that thing look like some bird he thought on how she was bending ends and twisting other pieces though Dive wondered what kind of bird it would be.

How he envied her. That ability had been lost to him for quite a while. It had to be with the attacks happening kind of random and out of their control. Dive had to be ready at anytime.

"You sure do space out a lot..." Miya's voice snapped him back into reality once more.

"What?" He asked looking toward her again.

"Nothing..." Miya giggled standing up leaving her napkin on the table yawning. "I think I'm going to head to my room and possibly sleep."

"Ah ok," Dive said watching her leave after saying goodnight to him. His eyes then drifted toward the napkin.

Huh.

Picking up the folded paper he stared at his face staring back at him. Not only had that but the look of the folded paper given him a zoned out look. This couldn't be what he looked like! She could have given him a better facial expression but it did make him laugh a little.

He had been laughing a lot as of late which was a nice change from how he normally been. These weren't forced laughs either most of the time. Somehow he had found that again at least. Looking up at the clock, with odd napkin Dive in his hand, he decided maybe he would try and sleep. Yawning he walked away from the kitchen turning off the light and into his bedroom.

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It was almost time. Yes almost time and working with the filthy humans would have been worth it. They where a stupid species, weren't they? Like digging your own grave. He highly doubted though that most of the humans around him even knew what exactly he was planning. But that didn't matter much because once his full plan was in affect nobody could stop him.

Not even the ducks.

Even if they now had Wildwing and Miya they couldn't stop him. It was just that simple.

Dragonuas turned from a mirror he had gazed into looking about the room, his eyes landing on the shackles that where on the ground, tossed aside from the last time they had been used. This had been HER room only but a few weeks ago. Normally she'd be sitting in a chair when he walked in or over by the vent on the wall probably trying to escape.

Though she did escape.

But that was beside the point. It would only make sense that a prisoner would want to escape. After all they weren't there on their own free will. It was only harming them by being there.

But still.

Walking over he picked up the shreds that she had used as a blanket of sorts and brought them up to his nostrils inhaling, hoping to just catch a glimpse of how she used to smell. Ahh...well it was over now and the next time he caught sight of her he'd have to kill her plain and simple.

After all it was only the right thing for a saurian overlord to do.

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Glancing over toward the female duck in his company he noticed a small shiver she seemed to have while standing at the red light. So they had decided to go out to eat. Dive had invited Duke but he muttered about some place he had to be and left them quickly.

Looking over at her he just shook his head realizing the outfit she had picked out wasn't very warm to say the least but the forecast had told them it should have been warm so it wasn't like she had been kind of stupid and dressed in a skirt and a halter-top with a slightly opaque shirt over it. That and those blasted go go like boots they had argued over that day he had taken her shopping. She just wouldn't leave the store without them. Ahh well they did look good on her, he thought bringing his eyes back to the front of them seeing the walk signal was on now.

"So where should we eat?" Miya asked looking toward him as they walked with the group of people. "I was thinking more of a Mongolian place. I heard that's supposed to be good!"

"..Mongolian?" Dive blinked reaching up and holding his hair down as a gust of wind went past them. "How about normal ethnic Chinese food? You liked it the first time you had it so why not relive the experience." That earned a chuckle from Miya who just turned smiling at him.

"I just wanted to try something different," She said reaching her hand up holding her hair as another gust of wind blew past them both. "Stupid hair."

"Tell me about it..." Dive muttered glancing toward her but found himself unable to fully look at her. Not only that but he seemed to be blushing.

What the hell?!

Shaking his head, Dives golden locks flying in the wind causing a mess of hair. Now that was an odd feeling he had just had. Frowning he just explained it away to lack of sleep. That had to be it.

Pulling off his coat after realizing she had been shivering again he put it on her shoulders.

"..Huh..?" Blinking Miya looked up at him.

"You are cold, right?" He asked coughing trying to keep his racing heart from jumping out of his beak.

"Thanks. If it wasn't for the weatherman being wrong I wouldn't even attempted at wearing this outfit." She complained. "I just felt like feeling pretty today, that's all. A duck has to dress up once and a while to prove she can."

"That's the same motto Mallory has," Dive laughed feeling himself calm down a bit. Never had he acted this way around Mallory or even Tanya so why was he getting nervous?

"You guys must be close," She broke in as he looked toward her again.

"What?" He asked kind of confused.

"..Well you're always talking about your brother and the rest of the team. I was just kind of stating that you sounded like they are your family."

"Well I've been around them all for six or so years and really haven't been around anyone else..." Muttering his mind flashed Mookie and Thrash. Yeah he would have considered them family if they had been alive now but that wasn't important and he wasn't going to go crying to her about it all. He didn't need to be doing that again. "Yeah they are my family."

"That's wonderful," She smiled giggling and rushing forward turning back toward him. "The Mongolian restaurant is right up there!"

Chuckling he shook his head. Ok so he'd let her win this round. He'd never had tried Mongolian anyway. This was gonna be a new experience.

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"Hey Sweetheart," His grinning face came through the door. Over in the corner was the red haired duck reading something at her table when she looked up seeing his face.

"Duke!" Mallory streaked getting up and walking over toward the gray haired duck and hugging him, giving him a kiss while at it. "I wasn't expecting you till tomorrow! Why so early?"

"Ahh well Tanny said she wasn't going back to the lab till I got back and I could leave early. Between you and me I think Tanny is in love with Wildwing."

"Duh!" Mallory spat out laughing and turning heading back to her table. "She's been in love with the duck since we got here on Earth. Almost killed her when he disappeared three years ago without a trace...about as bad as Dive."

"Doesn't anyone talk to everyone now a days?!" Duke joked sitting down across from her.

"Something like that we don't blab to the world Duke," Mallory laughed again.

"Then how did you know..."

"BECAUSE you were so obvious about it. Even Dive could tell and you know how he is with those kinds of situations...Never known that Mookie had a thing for him back then." The last part she muttered quietly her face reflecting the still very open wound even on Mallory. Nobody totally recovered from the lost of the two humans, even if they really didn't hang out with them. It was the look of pure horror and loss on Nosedive's face that kept it fresh in their minds. Back when he showed his feelings more openly then he did now. Nobody wanted the kid of the team to ever have to feel or witness the true cost of war but that was a stupid thought. Especially with the saurians and Dragonuas who would use anything he could think of to inflict pain on them.

That's when Duke began to chuckle earning a glare from Mallory.

"And why are you laughing now? Don't tell me you think all this is some big joke?!"

"No...No you got me all wrong sweetheart," Duke said calming down. "It's just that...well I hope Dive isn't as dense as he was back then, if what you say is true."

"Huh?" Ok now Mallory was confused.

"The kid I found with Wing. Well both of them have warmed up real nice to each other," He grinned. "I had mentioned your proposal and the kid nearly tripped on himself saying she wasn't a bother...and then the girl was waiting for any type of reaction from Dive before she spoke that she was fine at his place. Now if I had said that two weeks ago..."

Mallory began to giggle lightly.

"..Well there is a whole situation where he's never had any experience in dating and love. Stupid brat. I'd love to be over there just to laugh at it all."

"Not now. I know your rooting for him."

"Hush now." Mallory laughed again. "I don't have to say it now do I?"

"Now how about we go on that date we had talked about?" Duke grinned taking her wrist and pulling her close.

"I have work." Mallory grinned pulling away. "But we can go out after if you want."

"Sounds good."

"Now just don't destroy my apartment while I'm gone." She said giving him a quick peck on the beak and waving heading out the door.

"Now what am I to do?" Duke frowned sitting in a chair.

O but things weren't going to go as smooth as neither of them planned. Not by a long shot. Dragonuas's plan was about to take affect and nobody could possibly imagine what he was doing...

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The taller and bigger gray duck had been sitting in the capital watching the senate debate over something. It was what Grin liked to watch in D.C. Human politics fascinated him though he'd never admit it to anyone nor would he even try to even attempt it but he could watch right? Well...watch as much as he could that is. He was glad that Tanya had called him on the comm. telling him that he'd be upgrading his eyes in a week or so. But for now he was content.

Not for long though.

Watching the people below him noticed an odd heat signature right above the chairman's post in the wall. At first glance he passed over it thinking it was just a warm spot in the wall where one the heat ducts had broken and was releasing there. That had occurred around him many of times. That's why he had passed over it the first time without much thought. Also the fact the building was so old played a part in his gaze...but...as Grin sat there, his eyes fixed on that spot he watched the heat radiate from it..Never wavering...never growing bigger or smaller as one would think a heat duct would do when it turned on and off.

Standing up Grin was about to walk to the security area and talk to them about it. They would know where the heat ducts lay and if it was then he could tell them about the leak. If it wasn't...well he'd have to investigate it.

But he never got that far down the isle...

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"Wing, I've got lunch ready!" Tanya yelled out setting the taller ducks lunch in the spot she always put it so Wildwing wouldn't be confused or need help. He was proud that way. Even through everything Dragonuas had put him through Wildwing still wanted to eat on his own power, which of course was a good thing. It meant that Dragonuas didn't steal the one thing that would decide if he'd get better...

Hope.

"K. k." She heard him call back from the bed room. Sometimes the yellow duck wondered what exactly he did all day considering he was blind and him movement was limited. Not to mention he still tired easily though not as fast as he had two weeks ago. "What is it today?"

"Sandwiches." Tanya responded taking a bite of her own. "Whole wheat bread, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and some tuna." She was making sure that everything he ate had some nutritional value to help him along. That's why he was recovering so fast though she had told Duke that he could have something of a treat at night just to keep him happy.

"Sounds good." Wing said coming out from behind a hallway and slowly making his way to the table. She didn't even have to warn him about how close he was. Wildwing had figured out the lay of the land pretty quickly when he had started to move around.

Coming in and sitting down he reached forward and found the sandwich.

"Where's Duke?" He asked. "Haven't heard him around here since this morning."

"Caught a plane to go see Mallory this morning." Tanya said. "So I'll be here all weekend, if that's fine with you."

"Of course it is." He said. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"I don't know," Tanya muttered feeling really stupid then. When it came to relationships like the one she wanted with Wildwing, she'd always sucked at it. If it had been an actual class in school...she'd still be retaking it. That's partially why she decided not to tell the duck till after his eye surgery. It was an excuse. One she knew she shouldn't be making after all if it wasn't for Miya they'd all still think Wildwing was dead and she'd have no chance.

"Is something wrong?" He asked. "You sound kind of off today."

"Ahh just worrying about a program I'm writing." She lied laughing. She wasn't going to tell him the truth. "I might have missed a zero somewhere." Wildwing must have bought it because he sat there quietly eating his sandwich which made Tanya happy. At least she didn't have to deal with that.

Letting a breath she had been holding go her head turned noticing in the New York skyline a billow of smoke rising not to far off in the distance.

"Huh..." Escaped her beak as she stood up walking over to the window to see what was going on.

"What's going on?" Wildwing asked her not being able to see what she was.

That's when her building shook causing Tanya to fly into a desk. Wildwing had fallen off the chair.

"What the hell is going on?" He asked worried.

"..I don't know..." Tanya muttered standing up but only to have her apartment shake worse. Catching a glimpse outside her window there where now many billows of smoke even closer then the first one. "..I...I think New York is under some sorta massive attack." She said crawling over to where Wildwing was lying. "We need to get out of here. It's not safe. If Dragonuas is behind this I'm sure this place is rigged too." Reaching over to his arm Tanya began to lead him to the door. A stairwell would be safer then this apartment at the moment.

"We need to contact the others," Wildwing muttered feeling another shake of the building. The bombs where getting closer he could tell.

"Yeah but first we need to get to a stairwell. We can't contact them if we're dead." She said as the lights went out. Pushing a hidden button on her bio hand a light broke the darkness so she could lead them both. This was bad. Very bad. What ever Dragonuas had been planning had gone right over their heads.

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Coughing, the first thing Nosedive remembered after awaking is laughter. Miya and himself had been eating at that blasted Mongolian restaurant that she had asked to go. The food now threatens to come up, he might add. He felt sick, disorientated, not to mention he couldn't see a damn thing around him. Reaching his hand out to touch something around him, he felt a jolt of pain with what ever he had touched. Bringing his hand back he put a finger in his beak tasting blood. Ok...now he was worried. What the hell happened to put him in this place? The smell of fire and burnt flesh tickled his nostrils. This wasn't good. Not to mention he couldn't see anyone around him, where he could see that is.

"Hello?" He coughed out finding his voice once more. There had to be someone around him. Hell that restaurant he could remember was packed with people. If something happened there he should have someone around him alive at least! "Hello? Is anyone alive?"

Nothing or nobody answered leaving him in a cold void that was his area around him. It was like how he had felt these years had taken his surroundings. He was truly alone.

Shit.

"Hello?!" He yelled out more shaken now. "I know someone has to be alive!"

That's when Nosedive remembered Miya. She had been with him the last time he could remember. Miya had been giggling across from him, her green eyes swimming with joy. Something he hadn't felt in quite a while yet somehow at that memory he could swear that it was just touching him again. When ever she was around he was able to find himself again.

Fear began to ebb all through out his body realizing if there had been some sorta explosion, she was around here somewhere as well. Around here and alone! Possibly dead!

"Miya!" He screamed leaning forward more. Nosedive was going to find his way out of this and find her. "If you can hear me make some sorta noise!"

But nothing came. Not again! When someone had grown close to him...was she already gone?! It was like loosing his brother all over again. Tears began to welt up in his eyes as he stopped crawling. Not again.

Not fucking again...

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(Authors notes)

Yes Dragonuas had been planning stuff!

Compared to the last version of the DuCaine legacy this is rooted a bit more in reality I feel. If Dragonuas was going to take over Earth he would probably resort to blowing things up. Dynamite is an easily obtainable source and in certain places can be easily brought and blown up without much resistance. :P

Ok I'm done being all weird and freaky for the moment. I've finally gotten around to posting another one of these chapters. You notice I also posted a few more chapters as well in my other stories. I got in a writing mood this past week!

That I finally got my computer back to the way I like it.

Not to kind of ramble on this authors note but the past three or so weeks (well not including this past week mind you) my computer was sick and I almost lost everything. But luckily what I lost was pictures and music files (though I did have like over 13 Gigs of music). My stories and my comic files for the sprite comic I do online were intact.

Anyway please review before you go and as always thanks for taking the time to read one of my stories! V I love reading your reviews!


	8. Chapter 7: Broken

Yeah this prayer, is for me to die

_**This prayer is for me tonight  
This far down that line and still ain't got it right**_

Chapter 7: Broken

The building still shook every once and a while as Tanya sat there looking over at Wildwing who was beside her. She was pretty sure that the explosions now where due to other things exploding then the first cause of it all but it was still to rough outside for her to even attempt to bring Wildwing out.

Luckily at least the people of her apartment where also flooding the stairwell and sitting by her and Wildwing, quietly talking now. As long as a direct blast didn't hit the building they where in everyone would make it out alive. Now it was just a waiting game till things seemed to clear up a bit before they could even attempt to head outside.

"Hey isn't that Wildwing?" One of her neighbors said pointing toward him next to her.

Nodding she smiled.

"Yes, we've been trying to help him since we've gotten him back from Dragounus." She replied.

A child began to giggle and poked at Wildwing.

"Are you alright Mr.?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine now." He laughed. "Tanny here is helping me recover fast."

"Wow!"

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"You alright Mallory?" Duke coughed sitting up from where he had been blown back from the blast.

"Yeah..." The female duck croaked lifting her head up. She had been blown back from the doorway during the blast into her house. It had been close, she thought dryly. That of course was because Dragonuas knew where she lived. Everyone in Anaheim knew where she lived. Everyone in the country could find out where she lived by just googling her name. "What was that?"

"Dragonuas more then likely," Duke coughed standing up among the rubble.

"Well BESIDES that..." She chuckled checking herself for any visible problems. After the check over she stood up and walked over to Duke with some trouble because of the rubble between them but with a little effort did get to him. "We should call the others."

Nodding Duke hit the button for everyone glancing around quickly to make sure they where semi safe standing there at the moment. That's when two faces appeared on the monitor; Grin and Tanya.

"..Where's Dive and Miya?" Duke muttered looking at Mallory who had her own comm. up so she wouldn't be trying to see Dukes.

"..From the looks of you three tell me those explosions weren't just in New York," Tanya muttered. "There is still something exploding outside of my apartment. I'm in the stairwell with Wing and the rest of my apartment neighbors."

"..You're the only one in New York Tanya," Mallory said. "You probably should go find out where Nosedive and Miya are if you can. They might have been caught in a direct blast. If that's the case..."

"I understand," Tanya sighed. "Let me talk with my neighbors and I'll try and head out."

Mallory then looked at Grin when Tanya's comm. blinked out.

"I'm going to head back into the Senate room and see who's alive..." He muttered. "Then head toward the white house and talk with them."

Both Duke and Mallory nodded as his comm. blinked off leaving them alone again.

"We should head toward the Pond," Duke muttered pulling her into an embrace. "There will be something's we can use there since it looks like Anaheim is blacked out."

Mallory pulled away and glanced out the hole in her wall to see indeed 90 of Anaheim was black. Not to mention the billows of smoke pouring out from everywhere.

"Yeah the Pond sounds good right now." She said knowing it had a generator at least. They didn't take that apart when leaving the Pond just in case.

Both of the ducks began to climb/crawl their way out of what was left of her apartment.

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Lost...

Hopeless.

It felt like he was falling. Probably for the last time. HOPEFULLY for the last time.

Nosedive couldn't take it anymore. If he died now at least the rest of the team could blame it on the explosion if they wanted to. Sure he had heard his communicator beep but he figured that was Mallory or Tanya or one of them trying to get in contact with him and if he was going to die...well he wanted to be alone so they couldn't talk him out of it.

Heh. He hadn't changed much. But at least Wildwing would never know what he had become. They could beat Dragonuas without him. As of late he hadn't been that much of help anyway.

Reaching over for that sharp object he had cut himself on before he picked it up carefully finding it to be a broken piece of glass and looked down at his wrists where his first attempts at it had gone horribly wrong. He had cut to low and to lightly before.

Nosedive wasn't going to make that mistake again.

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Walking up the big isle toward the front of the senate room, Grin had to step over a lot of dead bodies. Something that made him sad and mad. If he was the cursing type he would have let a few go at Dragonuas. How could one monster cause such havoc? Why would someone want to take joy in the fact he harmed thousands of innocent people who had never done a single thing to him.

Hearing someone gasp for air just a few feet in front of him Grin quickly bent down flipping the person over...Only to see that it was hopeless...there was a giant hole on the right side of their chest causing the situation. Grin couldn't fix this...

Tears dropped from the large duck as he sat there with the human in his final moments. At least he could be there for him so he didn't pass on to the other side alone. After a few more gasps from the man he did indeed die. Gently Grin set him on the floor bowing his head and saying a quiet prayer for the departed soul then taking a loose piece of clothe he could see on the floor and placing it over the man's face. That should tell anybody wondering around that the man is dead. Standing fully up he continued looking around for survivors but since it was ground zero of the blast zone there wasn't much to be found but he still had to look. Hearing the sirens outside something told him that the way inside was blocked. He was the only one who could find survivors and collect them for removal of the damaged zone.

Walking over hearing some movement he walked over to a severely damaged sitting zone to find someone under one of the desks in the middle of all the damage.

"..You alright?" He asked trying to get over the half there chairs and broken desks flipped on their side.

"..I I think so.." The figure said trying to crawl out from under the desk but found it useless and leaned back. "You look strong! Could you help me here?"

Nodding Grin pulled up the broken desk that was blocking the person's way out. As they got out he noticed it was indeed a woman, like he had thought from the sound of her voice. She had a scratch on her face but other then that she looked fairly well. Her hair was red and she wore a disheveled business suit. One of the heals she wore was broke, he noticed.

"I should find you a better set of shoes before you try and move." He said looking around.

"Ahh these old things?" The woman laughed taking off her good shoe and slamming it against the desk she had been hiding under snapping the other heal. "It'll be fine until I can get to our office. I have a set of running shoes in there."

"I don't think we'll be moving around much in here." Grin said. "Could you help me at least find other survivors till we can get that far?"

"I don't know how much help I can be but I'll try." She nodded. "My names Katie Johnson. I am...well used to be an assistant to one of the senators. Hopefully he's fine." Glancing around she couldn't spot the senator around her and began to climb out slowly past Grin who turned and watched her for a bit then following behind.

"I'm Grin." He added when she got to a clearing that was a part of the main isle. Turning around she nodded.

"I know." She said starting off in a random direction searching.

At least he would have some help and the fact he found someone alive. That gave him a bit of hope that there could be others around still alive.

"Hey I found someone alive! They need you to come lift this thing off them!" Katie yelled.

Grin grinned.

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The first thing he felt after the dull void he had accepted was a pain...but not from his wrists like he had felt not to long ago...

Opening an eye his head began to ache. Why the hell was he still alive?!

"Don't move around so much!" A voice to his right said. It was HER voice. She had found him. Blinking his eyes adjusted as she flicked something and light filled the little "cave" he had found himself in.

"Miya?" He asked seeing her form over the fire. Looking up a worried look crossed over her face as she kneeled down and began to crawl over toward him since there wasn't any room to actually stand Nosedive realized. Glancing down he noticed his wrists...there wasn't any blood. Though that wasn't what shocked him. What shocked him was the fact there was no scar on any of the slashes he had caused. There was nothing. Actually...all the scars he had accumulated on his arms, self inflicted and from battles, where gone. What the hell was going on?! He had given himself at least five or six good slashes on both wrists...why the hell weren't they there? Had he just dreamed that? Was he going crazy? Had he just cracked?!

"I told you not to move." Miya's voice brought him back from his inner panic. Turning his head he saw her sitting next to him smiling. "I think we can get out of here in a little bit but I don't want to move you for a while."

"..What happened?" Nosedive asked. The way she spoke told him there was something she was leaving out. Then the pained expression on her face told him the rest.

"You lost a lot of blood before I got to you." She then muttered not even looking in his eyes. They where cast down and to his left as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Moving around to much might cause you to black out."

"What the hell happened?!" Nosedive spat shoving his wrists in her face. "THIS isn't NORMAL."

"Why?" Her quivering voice broke in instead. Not the answer he wanted but something told him not to speak. "Why the hell would you do that to yourself?!" Her head jolted up, tears brimming over her eyes and falling freely. "..Why would you choose that...?" Reaching up she rubbed one of her eyes leaving a trail of blood behind.

"You're bleeding!" Nosedive yelled grabbing her hand without thinking...but what he saw shocked him even worse.

Yes the duck was bleeding but it wasn't that what shocked him. It was the fact she was bleeding from an open wound on her wrist. An identical wound that he had inflicted on himself. Actually there where five cuts but the rest had healed over. He could tell that the one bleeding had healed over at one point but the fact she had crawled over to him must have tore it open.

Dropping her hand he looked startled up at her face that looked sheepishly.

"I'm...well I'm sorta a mage like Wreath..." She answered his look with. "I was in the middle of my lessons when the saurians attacked back on Puckworld." The duck sighed looking at her wrist, tracing the open wound with her finger quietly continuing. "My parents taught me a small trick on how to heal a duck by taking the burden of pain and sickness on yourself. We didn't get any farther then that with the healing spells though. When I saw you..." Miya stopped to choke up with what she was saying to go on.

Finally she caught herself and looked down at the ground between them.

"When I saw you like that...laying there lost to the world...I couldn't let it end like that. There's too much to live for Nosedive." She looked up chuckling a little rubbing her other eye. "..Lucky you suck at cutting your own wrists..."

That last comment was supposed to be a joke but Nosedive wasn't laughing right now. She had seen him at his lowest...

And yet could smile and laugh. Making a light joke about a very serious issue. He didn't know wither to laugh with her or be very offended. But Miya was always that way so why would something like this make her out of character?

"Fine," He muttered smiling lightly. "I won't do that anymore...if you're going to come and use that odd power and inflict that on yourself. There's no point. I don't need to be hurting you in the process."

"Good." She laughed taking a deep breath. "I don't need this again. I have enough scars as it is."

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He had decided after that whole bit with Miya to sleep for a bit. Dive after all had been feeling a bit light headed anyway like she had said. But once he woke up he found himself in the same place, Miya curled up next to him sleeping, leaning slightly against him. Looking over toward the duck he smiled lightly watching her breath lightly. His world had shattered when he had thought he'd lost the duck...

But here she was. And somehow she had saved him from himself then. Thinking about the duck he realized something. That when she spoke about being a mage it had been the first time she really had spoken about her past (beside the fact that when she was younger she wanted to be a comic book artist and read comics). There wasn't much he actually knew of the ducks past snuggling close to him but Dive knew that it didn't matter much anyway. What ever happened in the past created them to both be who they where, not to mention the fact that it brought them both to Earth.

Yawning he decided to finally get up. Slowly pushing her away he sat up feeling a bit better and noticed right away that the fire had died out that Miya had built. It was a good thing though. If it had continued it could risk setting the wood on fire around them and then they would have been in trouble. Crawling over past her he began to feel where the fire was and quickly started it again finding a pack of matches Miya had used. Glancing over at the sleeping female duck he sighed glancing back in the fire.

A mage huh? He'd never figure her to be a magic user. Sure back on Puckworld there were many of them but usually it ran in old blood lines more so then anything and those old blood lines tended to keep to themselves only allowing their children to marry old blood to keep the magic "pure". Everyone knew that on Puckworld and most of the people stayed away from them and they stayed away from the "regular" people. But everyone knew, even in the camps, that the saurians during the first wave of terror had taken out most of the old blood. It was because it was their families that had taken out the saurians. Drake DuCaine's family was apart of that old blood as well. They where a very proud family. Very proud and very quiet.

Glancing over toward the sleeping female duck again he sighed. So she was probably from old blood. That would explain why Dragonuas had taken her in the beginning but not why he had kept her so long...but Nosedive had a feeling of why exactly she was allowed to live.

A sickening feeling.

"Dive?" He heard her mutter as she sat up slowly her sea green eyes opened sleepily and glanced toward him.

"I'm right here," He said watching the light of the flames dance upon her.

"You could have woke me." She yawned crawling over toward him.

"You looked cute sleeping, I couldn't wake you," He joked leaning his head on one of his hands watching her. A blush came on her features as she crawled forward...well a blush or the fire was really red at the moment. Dived like to think the first of the two though.

"You don't have to joke around...shesh..." She huffed sitting across from him. "Anyway we should get going or were never going to get out of here." Miya pointed to her left, Dive's right to a darkened area. "I'm sure the others are worried."

"We could call them on our comm.s," Dive said pointing to his. "But I figured someone will be here to help us get out of here if we stay quiet. After all our comms double as homing beacons."

"Really?!" Miya blinked looking at the one she had closely. "Wow."

"Are you in there Nosedive? Miya?" Tanya's voice broke in startling both of them. Speak of the devil...well blonde haired scientist...but how did she get to New York so fast considering it was probably in shambles now. Tanya couldn't very well fly to New York if it was as bad as Dive thought and she couldn't fly the Arrowwing by herself.

"We're in here!" Miya shouted happily.

There was something going on here, Dive thought, more then met the eye.

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Flipping a light on (the generator automatically flipping on) after searching through the dust and cob webs Mallory stood in their old rec room once more with Duke beside her. Memories began to fill their senses as she smiled lightly thinking about times almost forgotten. About how many fights her and Nosedive had gotten into. About how they had grown like a family under the hockey rink before the big change. Feeling a set of hands on her shoulders Mallory glanced over them to see Duke there smiling at her.

"Thinking about the past sweetheart?" He asked and Mallory nodded looking ahead of herself.

"Thinks have really changed since the last time we stood in here," She sighed. Walking over to an old table that still held a chess board on it with a half finished game the red haired duck quietly smiled to herself. Duke and herself had been playing chess to pass the time away until Wildwing had come back giving her the news that it was time to leave. Everyone had packed then, they where just waiting for the finalizations to come that would make the Pond sold.

"We don't have time to remember darlin'. We have to gather supplies and head to New York. I'm sure the brut is still there somewhere. It's too big of a city to be found in easily."

Nodding Mallory walked past him toward the armory. They had left a lot of the more explosive things behind mainly because they couldn't very well travel with something like that strapped to their asses as they traveled around the US. Turning a corner and heading down a very dusty hallway Mallory sneezed pushing another button causing a panel from the wall to come out. There was a hand scanner and a keyboard on it.

"I almost forgot my password," She chuckled looking to her back to see Duke there laughing and nodding watching her put her hand in the scanner. With a light hum the scanner came to life as she typed out the password with her right hand quickly.

After a few seconds a chime sounded and the armory door opened a light flickering on behind a few shelves revealing the bigger guns they had left.

"How are we going to get this to New York?" Sighed Mallory turning and seeing Duke grinning holding a giant grenade launcher type gun.

"We'll have to contact the government again," He said setting the gun aside. "They'll be able to arrange this."

Nodding Mallory pulled a few guns and grenades off the racks and set them in a bag she had dug for in a drawer.

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The woman named Katie Grin had found first had turned out to be a real big help. With his size he could move things that would be almost impossible for any of the senate members to do so but he couldn't move very easily without removing some of the debris from the isle which sometimes proved very dangerous. After all who knew what it could have been holding up or holding back with everything torn up as it was. She'd move through the room pretty easily and if Grin's help was needed he'd get over there as quickly as he could.

But most of the time he'd just walk down the accessible area's and call out every once and a while if anyone was alright or awake or needing of help in case someone had woken up near him.

"I cleared the area in the front right," Katie out of breath came walking up beside him looking up at the duck. "I'm going to head over to the other side of the room and look around."

"Ok." Grin said looking at a wall that ran up two stories. The wall was concerning him a bit. He had noticed it the first time he had taken this route up the isle. On the wall there was a crack running up it. Not only that but the crack seemed to be growing as he had left and came back. That meant it was very unstable and such a big wall...well it was going to make a mess if it did indeed give way. Not to mention part of the balcony was going to go if that wall did go, and the ceiling above.

"Have any of the others found a way out of here yet?" Grin asked turning and glancing down at the woman who shook her head.

"Someone's close to clearing a hole but we don't know what's behind it. If the hallway caved in beyond we'll have to find another way." She sighed.

"I want you to keep the people toward the other side of the room." Grin said looking back at the wall. "I fear it's not stable here." While he was glancing at the wall he noticed as the crack added another foot or so to it's path up the wall, a piece of plaster and paint falling toward the ground adding to the rubble below.

They really needed to find a way out of there fast.

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"I'm sooo happy you found us!" Miya squealed hugging Tanya who laughed nervously patting the younger duck on her back and pulled away.

"You guys are lucky." She muttered pushing her glasses up on her beak more glancing at the two ducks that stood before her. The humans who had survived the blast that had been close, just across the street, stood behind them talking to the paramedics and firefighters. It had blown the store front in and if they had been outside in the street then...well they probably wouldn't be standing there. "You should have answered your comms or at least tried calling someone for help. You had us all worried sick!"

"Ahh well I didn't hear it go off," Dive lied rubbing the back of his head. "And we were just about to call someone when you came." He wasn't going to explain to her that he was in the middle of cutting himself and trying to KILL himself. There was enough to worry about at the moment. "What's the damage anyway?"

Tanya shook her head sighing. That wasn't a good sign. She never did that when good things happened, he dryly thought.

"Every major city in the United States was hit by some sorta blast, all almost exactly at the same time..." Tanya gave the news. "L.A., Chicago, Miami, Anaheim, Dallas, Washington D.C., and of course New York. That's what the police informed me on my way of finding you."

Miya who was beside him gasped, a trickle of blood going down her arm. Dive looked away ashamed kicking a rock by his right foot. Tanya would notice that and she wasn't stupid. Those marks weren't from a blast.

"Are you both ok?" Tanya then asked. "I should probably check you both over before we talk about other things."

"Wait a minute," Nosedive said his head snapping toward her again. "How did you get to New York so fast? I mean I don't see anyone else and you can't drive the Arrowwing by yourself."

"I was in town," Tanya said glaring at him. "Was picking something up for the Drake computers I'm still finishing that I couldn't wait."

"Yeah," Nosedive huffed. "Anyway we should try and head to my apartment. There's weapons and ammo there."

"...Dragonuas hit that block with a bomb. You where lucky not to be there." Tanya sighed.

Shit. Dive frowned again.

Dragonuas was really out for blood. How the hell where they going to rescue Wing when he was like this?! They had just taken a whole lot of steps backward in the fight against the saurian overlord. The U.S. was in massive chaos right now and the president was probably in hiding by now. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the government would probably point their fingers at them. Someone had to take the fall for this huge mess and after all, they where the aliens who were suppose to stop this war.

If that were the case more then likely they would loose the support of the government pretty quickly and then people would really be after them.

"Just calm down Dive," Tanya broke in. "I know how your mind works and it isn't going to be as bad as you've twisted up. Mallory and Duke have already gathered what they could from the Pond and are heading to New York. We think he's still in this city."

"How the hell are we supposed to fight him?" Dive snapped. "After all, he can do this, what's stopping him from just blowing us entirely up. Hell we were lucky not to be blown up in this mess as it is as you said yourself! So I can freak out. I have every right to!" With that Nosedive turned his back on Tanya and began to walk the street back to his apartment. He needed to see the damage for himself.

Besides Dive was tired of trying to put on an act. The rest of the team didn't need old Dive as much as they needed a miracle.

Tanya was about to butt in when Dive left her and Miya.

"Don't worry to much about it," The girl said beside her. "He's just lost his footing, that's all."

Well that was a light way of putting it, Tanya sighed.

"Anyway it looks like you sustained a bit of scratches during the blast, your bleeding after all." Tanya said pointing toward her arm and the trickle of blood.

The girl looked down and frowned lightly one of her hands clamping on her wrist, which Tanya couldn't see but had assumed were the blood was coming from.

"It's just a scratch. I'll have a paramedic give me a band aid. You shouldn't worry yourself to much on it." She laughed waving the bleeding hand at her. "Besides there are other people standing around waiting for a doctor's care who are in much worse condition you know. I can wait." And before Tanya could object to the idea the girl ran off after Dive.

Frowning Tanya just shook her head deciding not to follow them just yet. Miya had been right about the other people and as long as Miya was so certain that it could wait she'd help around first. Tanya would check the girl over later anyway wither she objected or not along with Nosedive.

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"..Shit..." He hissed looking at the rubble that was the old apartment building. It smoldered and smoked around him, towers of bricks threading to fall down. Tanya was right about this. If he had been in the building...he and Miya, who was normally around him most of the time, would have died. Turning he sent his foot into a stack of bricks kicking it over, causing a poof of dust around him. Never did things go his way.

Never.

Walking over toward a more stable wall he leaned an arm against it wiping a few tears away. Everything seemed so fucking hopeless! Not only had he lost his brother (and recently found out he could very well be alive) but now with the mass and utter chaos churning around them there was no way he could save him.

"Nosedive?" Miya's voice called out from the street.

"I'm in here." Taking in a breath he looked up seeing the Duck climbing over some rubble carefully.

"These shoes aren't meant for climbing like this," She laughed walking over to him. "And now I don't have any extras."

"We'll head to an ATM and I'll get some money out," Dive sighed. "We'll need new clothes and shoes. Not to mention guns and armor."

"Guns..?"

"You can't very well think after a stunt like this that we could sit idle and let Dragonuas take over the world!" Dive spat out at the woman.

"...no it's fine..." She said. "I just don't like war much, that's all." Her tone was down, he noted but of course after all this everyone in the whole United States was down. Their private war was now an open wound bleeding all over the world. How Dive wished things were back to at least semi normalness.

"We should head now anyway." Dive said after a pause and walked past Miya climbing out of what used to be their apartment building. "I'll call Tanya and see if her apartment is usable right now. If it isn't we'll have to get a hotel room or something."

Dive heard the female duck stop suddenly who had been walking beside him. Turning his head he sent a questioning look at her.

"Nothing," She laughed nervously quickly catching up with him. It was an odd response but Dive wasn't going to question it right now. They had to group up and figure out how they were going to attack Dragonuas once and for all.

Before something like that happened again.

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So he had noticed Miya was slightly fidgety walking beside him. Probably stress, he idly thought as they walked into the only store in the area that was still open. Walking over the ATM he pulled out his wallet and took out his card feeding it into the machine punching in his password and how much he wanted to take out. Taking the cash and putting away his card and receipt he stuck his wallet back into his pocket turning toward the oddly quiet female duck that had been standing by him.

Dive didn't much like the expression of sadness and worry on her features then. It bothered him a bit. It was a rare moment when he did see that expression on her face. Normally Miya had a grin or a silly smile on her beak.

"Lets get out of these clothes," He smirked pointing toward were the clothes was in the department store. "You had said those shoes suck."

"..ahh well..I love them but they hurt...yeah..." She mumbled quietly looking somewhere. Turning his head he saw what she was looking at. It was a grouping of mirrors. He didn't quite understand it but began to walk toward the clothes.

"Do you want to split up and get the clothes?" He then asked.

"I guess." She then again mumbled. "I'll find you when I get what I need."

With that she walked away without any comment leaving Nosedive standing there wondering what the hell was going on but he decided to ask her later about it. Right now they didn't have much time to get supplies not to mention the fact she might not talk to him. Besides all this he had his own problems to deal with.

Walking down the isle Nosedive quickly grabbed enough to be a small wardrobe (something he now needed) and then walked over to the shoes picking out some running shoes and boots.

"I'm ready." A quiet voice chimed in behind him almost making him jump out of his skin. Turning his head he saw a still very somber Miya standing there with a cart.

"Ok." Dive said. "Let's go then." Turning he walked passed her and headed out toward the check out. "After this I should call Tanya on the Comm. and figure out what were going to do next."

Again her footsteps halt behind him, he can hear. Turning his head Dive sees a now crying Miya rubbing an eye.

"What's wrong?" He asked worried. Miya rarely cried. Only once did he see tears and that was when she had caught him crying. He couldn't deal with an emotionally unstable woman added to everything else he was trying to deal with. Dried blood on her arms was proof enough of that. "..I mean...if it's about what Dragonuas just did...we'll get him back...don't worry so much..." Taking a step forward she shook her head quickly.

"..It's not that Dive..." She said rubbing more tears away. "..I lied...I lied to you..." She mumbled.

"Huh?" Ok now he was confused. "..I'm sure it's nothing. Everyone lies..."

"NO!" She shouted causing the frantic people around them to stop and glance their way. "It's serious Dive! I can't take it anymore. Especially with what's going on! You need to know!"

Something about how she had said that shook him emotionally. The foundation he had built was made out of sand, mind you, Dive couldn't handle too much, he knew and if shook too much...he would crack...more then he already was.

"Duke told me to lie! I didn't know you and...and... the situation was different..but now..." She sobbed. Nosedive took another step toward her placing a hand on her shoulder.

"..What did he tell you to lie to me about?" He whispered softly knowing it wasn't going to be good. Anything Duke wanted hidden was bad. He was trying to brace himself the best he could.

Bending her head forward Miya leaned her head on his chest, trembling lightly then quietly the words came from her beak...

"..I saved Wildwing that day I found my way out of that building. He's been at Tanya's the whole time..."

The walls cracked.

The foundation shattered.

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O no! What is dive going to do!

Nosedive: I'm going to SUE you!

Me: Waaaa?

Nosedive: Stop this story now! It's to depressing!

Heh… anywho…

Review before you go and as always thanks for taking the time to read one of my stories.


	9. Chapter 8: Lost

All confessions long yes faded

_**And while confessions not yet stated  
Our next sin is contemplated**_

Chapter 8: Lost

The last thing he could remember was pushing Miya away, probably a little harder then he should have and tearing out of that department store.

No. It couldn't be true.

They wouldn't hide something that fucking important from him! They were a team after all! A shattered and broken team but a team none the less! And he was the sort of an unofficial leader! How the hell could he let something that important just pass him by! There had to be some sort of an indication that Wildwing was indeed at Tanya's!

Standing in front of Tanya's apartment, fire burning in the other buildings but it seemed that the one Tanya lived in was fairly untouched which meant that he'd probably still be in there!

Dashing forward he tore into the building and scanned the lobby trying to figure how he should try and get up to the apartment. The elevator was probably still down from all the explosions which meant he would be climbing five flights of stairs to get to Tanny's apartment. He had to see if it were true though.

If Wildwing was safe in all this chaos, who he was at the moment didn't matter as long as his brother was fine!

Jumping up the stairs he ran past the first and second story pretty quickly. By the time he was up on the fifth he was starting to feel the fact he hadn't been running and staying in shape so much. Looking around the hallways he could tell that people had been sitting there but they all cleared out once the explosions had finished. Dive knew Tanya's apartment and he also knew were she hid the extra key.

Walking up to the door he reached over to a seemingly normal piece of wall and pushed on it three times. After a little buzzing noise a pocket of the wall disappeared revealing a key sitting on a built in shelf. Taking it off the shelf he unlocked the door and opened it quietly. He didn't know who was there at the moment and didn't want anyone trying to hide. If Wildwing was indeed there he was going to see him and then demand an explanation why.

Stepping in the doorway he closed the door behind him quietly and walked down the entrance way silently until he came to Tanya's kitchen. She had always had a very simple looking kitchen. The scientist tended to just order out like himself but he, unlike Tanya, liked seeing a full kitchen. But that wasn't why he was here.

Indeed her apartment looked lived in. There were chips on the counter and a glass of something on the table in front of him. Walking up to the table he picked up the glass and sniffed the contents. It was just ordinary water. That's when he heard an odd shuffle. It was a footstep and something else.

...something he couldn't quite place but it was coming toward him. Standing in the kitchen his eyes followed the sound from a corner, not moving, not breathing...

"..Who's there?" A familiar voice echoed through the apartment as his body came around the corner.

The glass dropped out of his hand shattering on the floor as he saw what was left of his brother.

Trembling now Dive's hand flew up to his beak, as if to hold back the sobs that wanted to be let loose.

O Wing..

"Who's there?!" Wildwing barked in front of him, his head not moving. It was like he was staring right at him...but if he had been then why the hell was he asking who was in the apartment?! Dive knew instantly why.

Dive didn't know what to do. A part of him wanted to rush up to his lost brother and cry on his chest thanking God that he was alive. Another part of him wanted to run. Run far away from his brother. It wasn't because of what Wildwing looked like (though it did shock him). He was afraid. Afraid of what Wildwing would say to the broken duck that he was.

Wildwing hopped forward as if trying to examine what was around him.

The second part of Dive won the battle and he bolted out of there, not caring who or what heard him. He couldn't confront his brother like this! Like the emotional wreck that he was.

It wasn't fair.

It wasn't fucking fair!

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Glancing about the streets Tanya wiped her brow resting for a second. Most of the people on the streets now didn't much need her help. All the people on the streets now were just watching or had no place to go at the moment. Luckily for her she had a place to go and a few ducks to check on.

Flipping open her built in comm. in her hand Tanya hit Miya's button figuring she'd meet up with the other duck and check over the scratches she had claimed they were before she'd head over to her apartment and check to make sure that Wildwing was fine and the people around her.

When all she got was fuzz on her Comm. it slightly confused her. The only time when their comm.s did that was when they broke. That meant the Comm. Miya was using was broken somehow. Shaking her head she decided to call Dive, usually they were close to each other or one would know were the other was. Hitting Dive's comm. button it didn't show fuzz on the screen but he didn't seem to be picking up.

Shit. Something bad might have happened. Quickly she hit the reverse signal button. Miya's comm. might be broke but Dives was working and giving off a signal. Running toward an officer she quickly explained the situation to him and he offered to give her a ride.

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"PUSH!" Someone screamed behind him as the group of ten of survivors Grin and Katie had help find began to try and break through one of the blocked doors before the ceiling behind them crumbled. The large duck was pushing all he could but wasn't achieving anything. Stepping back Grin caught his breath looking at the door some more. They had to get out of the room or face being crushed by the falling roof and no sounds seemed to be coming from anywhere near the entrance and exits. Everyone around him also seemed to be looking towards him for advice. They were just regular people; people hired and voted in to help run the government, not to lead a group of trapped people by themselves.

"We'll have to find somewhere else to get out of." Grin sighed looking back at the wall and the running crack moving steadily up it. "Let us try the other door again. This one isn't going to move and I fear that the wall has fallen on the other side which would be the reason why we aren't able to do anything."

A few of them nodded and though obviously dragging their feet started walking across the room, toward the other side, and the door behind the broken and tattered floor of the senate. A few of the others stood there trying to catch their breath. Nobody was willing to die here, it seemed and Grin wasn't going to let them if he had any breath left in him.

A thought had occurred to him to call one of his teammates but looking at his comm. a while back he had realized there would be no way. It had broken during the blast. If he could have called at least someone they could have called the authorities that were outside and told them that there were survivors inside.

"Ok, let's try this together, once more…" Grin started as the rest of the able survivors gathered at the other set of doors.

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The signal seemed a bit mixed up; Tanya thought as the cop drove closer and closer to the directions she had given him. It wasn't to far from where her apartment was, actually an alleyway right behind it as she realized what she was reading on the map her comm. was giving her. Why would he be there?!

The officer pulled up in front of her apartment building and she stepped out thanking him for the lift to Nosedive. Turning she walked passed the doors and into the alleyway.

"..Nosedive…?" She muttered in the darkness, turning on her bionic arm's flashlight causing the dim and dark alleyway to brighten up instantly. She spotted him almost instantly in a corner, he didn't seem to be moving or even acknowledging the fact she was even there.

Was he dead?!

Rushing over to the duck she shook him a little and he batted her hands away angrily. Catching a glimpse of his face Tanya saw complete and utter horror, shock, and anger as he glared at her from his sitting position.

"You're alright?" She asked not wanting to get closer to him. Something told her that she shouldn't.

"Why should you care?!" Dive spat out at her. "All of you! All of you LIED to me!" He screamed flaying his arms about which Tanya noted had fresh slashes all about them.

"Dive.."

"I KNOW about Wing! I know you all kept it from me! FROM ME! Is this some sorta joke on me here?! Hell you even got the new duck in on it too! She's the one who told me!"

"Dive where's Miya?" Tanya asked calmly trying to asses the situation and what the hell was going on. He wasn't standing on anything now, she could tell. Tanya also figured those scratches/slashes on his arms were probably self inflicted. If she tried anything he might very well fall deeper into the hole he was already in.

"All you guys fucking care about is her! Never noticed how much fucking pain I was in! How much I am in! To self absorbed in your own little worlds to even see past your own beaks! All you wanted was the old Dive! The fun loving goofy Dive that could make jokes about anything and everything! Well he DIED when Wing left!"

"..Calm down Dive." Tanya again stated. She would have tried to explain everything to him fully there but it wouldn't have done anything. He was too hysterical to be rational about anything at the moment. "We were always here Dive. If you needed someone to talk to…"

"I wanted to talk to my BROTHER!" He yelled out.

"Yo Tanny, Dive.." A thick accented voice came from behind them.

That was fast. Tanya sighed turning her head to see Mallory and Duke standing there armed with a cop looking in on them.

"He found out." Tanya stood up looking down at the quivering duck.

"YOU ALL FUCKING LIED TO ME!" Dive screamed. "Am I THAT HORRIBLE TO KEEP THE INFORMATION OF MY OWN BROTHER BEING ALIVE AND AT TANYAS?!"

"Yes," Duke said glaring at the hysterical duck.

That wasn't something Dive was expecting and sat there anger still on his face but in shock that he would even say that to him.

"Not horrible Dive, but you couldn't have handled seeing him that way, look at the way you are now and he's not nearly in bad condition as when Miya brought him to us." Dive continued. "I've kept an eye on you for a while Dive, I know what you do. How you rarely eat, you hardly sleep, how you cry. It wasn't till Miya coming along that you started to open up. We can't help you if you don't talk to us Dive…"

"We care about you Dive; you're like a little brother to us. We didn't want to force anything that you weren't going to acknowledge." Mallory sighed. "It hurts all of us to see you like this…"

"NO IT FUCKING DOESN'T! ALL EVERYONE CARES ABOUT IS THEMSELVES!" Nosedive screamed at them.

"You're going to have to sedate him, I'm afraid," Duke sighed at Tanya. "He'll hurt himself more if we let him be like this."

Sadly Tanya nodded as they all walked toward him, a needling coming out of Tanya's bionic hand.

"LET ME GO!" Dive yelled one last time as Mallory, Duke, and Tanya held him down. The needle Tanya had pierced his skin on the side of his neck, instantly taking affect causing him to pass out.

"Sorry Dive," Was all he could make out of Dukes face, a very sad pity filled face as he passed out.

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Tears threatened to fall as she slowly made her way toward the police station. Miya didn't know were Tanya's place was, were Dive probably took off to when she had hold him. Her arm when moved hurt like hell…probably broke when she fell into that rack of stuff at the store. Things never seemed to go well when she was around. All she wanted was to help the other ducks with fighting Dragounus but had no clue as to how she could be any real help. Hell she had lied to Dive for so long…

…Dive…he probably would never speak to her again. Another thing she screwed up. All she wanted to be was happy and carefree. Maybe if she had stayed in Dragounus's cage none of this crap would have happened.

That probably would have been the case, but it didn't much matter now. Her hand broke, her wrist still bleeding a bit all Miya wanted to be was home, asleep with her comics beside her, dreaming of her family before all this happened.

"..Are you Miya?" A voice from a car jumped out at her. Not many people knew her name and not many people who new her name she liked. Turning her head she saw a weird man in a lab coat stepping out of a black car. "You know Tanya, right?"

"..Uh..yeah on both counts..Well I know Tanya but we really don't hang out much." She laughed a little. "I'm looking for her place actually. Nobody showed me were her apartment was."

"Well I don't need to get in touch with her right at the moment. I come from the lab she works at down in Miami. It was hell trying to get here in this mess but I was already flying here when all the explosions happened."

"I see," Miya said turning. He seemed nice enough.

"I came to drop off someone Tanya had been working hard to recover. We had a successful test run with the device she was working on down there and told us to start up while she was away. So successful, well..let me show you."

The door facing Miya began to open…and a tall orangish duck stepped out. Miya had never met the duck.

"Hi!" She smiled then looking at the scientist dude she pointed up at the strange duck. "I don't know him. I'm sure Tanya would have probably said something like that..."

The duck just laughed a little.

"So you're the one they found. I read some reports Tanya had written at her desk."

"Yeah, and you are…"

"Canard."

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Yay it's update time on my stories. It's once in a blue moon and guess what?! A blue moon! XD. Nah. I decided to finally get off my butt and write some on my more famous stories. Not that I'm famous or anything.

Yes. Canard was planned for this story like the last one though this time I didn't have Miya to bring him back from the dimensional limbo. This story has magic and stuff but it's more rooted like I've mentioned in reality. And I don't want Miya taking all the glory unlike the last story. A reality that Dive can't seem to handle much anymore. My poor divypoo.

I am actually almost done with this story now (writing it that is) and don't know how exactly I should end end it. We'll see how that goes when I finally get there.

Also New add! I've just reuploaded ALL the chapters with spellcheck in play and rewrote the lyrics in each of the top of the chapters. They were slightly wrong at times but still work with the story so it's ok!

Thanks for taking the time to read one of my stories and review before you go!


	10. Chapter 9: Chaos

_Never did we know_

_What the future would hold_

_We'd be bought and sold_

**Chapter 9: Chaos**

His eyes glanced toward the ceiling of the senate room again as Grin paced back and forth then his eyes settling on Katie who was just pushing something out of the way again to what looks to be one of the main doors into the senate room.

"I think I've almost got it!" She yelled to him. "Is there any way you can come here and move this last piece?"

The piece in question was a metal piece, probably a support beam when it was still usable for the balcony now it was just a big thing in the way. It was heavy looking and he was pretty sure that no one in the room at the moment besides him could even attempt to move the thing. It was the reason they had tried the other door first. That was the reason and the fact it seemed a lot more blocked then the other door.

"I think I can try," Grin said moving about the rock, rubble, and tipped over desks of the room. What the humans probably couldn't see was the break of light he was seeing at the top above the support beam. It was light and that meant that something was free on the other side to let it through. Light always shown as an odd blue color in his visor so he knew it well.

Finally reaching the beam he touched it gazing up at the pieces of balcony above them. Another factor in why he had chose the other side of the room was because he wasn't sure if the beam was holding anything up above them and to try and move it would risk another collapse on them.

But…

Moving it back and forth it seemed that it wasn't attached or holding the balcony above them at all which was a very good sign. All he needed now was to get it moved past the door without hitting the balcony to much.

It probably wouldn't handle that too much with that crack continuing to add onto itself.

Everything would be a lot simpler if his comm. hadn't broken during one of his removals of debris in the isle. If he had realized how difficult it was becoming and how dangerous it truly was he would have told Tanya to send someone to help them or have someone come get them.

He was sure there were police, firefighters, and paramedics were waiting on the outside and trying to get in the Senate room but by the time they got there it might be too late. That roof was going to come down, Grin was sure of it.

He just didn't want him or the others under it when it did come down.

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"Hey Tanya have you heard from Grin since he called?" Duke's voice grunted as he carried Dive carefully into Tanya's extra room that Wildwing had been using. The fact the most stable of the ducks hadn't called in quit a while started to bother Duke. From what Tanya said the capital of the United States had been hit especially hard where Grin was working at.

Well at least he had called before so it meant Grin had survived the first blast.

"No I haven't," Tanya yelled in the other room as she was digging through some of her cub boards for her med kit she kept at her apartment just for an occasion. His wrists needed bandaging badly or else he may very well get his wish.

Damn that boy.

"Duke, Tanya, I'd love to stay and help Dive but I think I should probably head to the capital and check on Grin since his comm. doesn't seem to be working at the moment," Mallory said looking toward the extra bedroom door at Duke. "I just checked it."

"Fine," Duke said walking out of the room and kissing her lightly on the beak. "Hurry there and back? Bring Grin with you when you do find him." Mallory quickly nodded and turned to Tanya who was digging in a cub board.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Mallory said. "I think once Dive awakens we'll all need to be here. This is something we should all be here for." Duke again nodded and watched Mallory walk out the door.

"Now calm down Darlin'," Duke said kneeling down slightly at Tanya. "He won't pass away in the few seconds it takes to properly look for the med kit and I'll help you." Turning he went to the other side of the small kitchen and noticed a broken glass on the floor and some blood on the tips of some of them.

"Yo Wing!" Duke shouted in the apartment instantly hearing a shuffle from the living room.

"Yeah Duke?" Wildwing said after getting closer to the kitchen.

"Did you break a cup?" Duke asked quickly picking up the rest of the glass so nobody cut themselves on it more.

"No…I figured it fell with an aftershock of the explosions. I probably set it to close to the edge of the counter. I tried to clean it up. It was the oddest thing though right before it fell."

"Oh?" Duke asked throwing the glass away and then starting to dig in the cub board next to the trash can.

"I was sure the door was closed when we came back. Closed and locked but right before the glass broke I could swear I heard the door open. Then when I went over to check, I cut my foot on the glass and found the door open but nobody was around." Wildwing explained.

"I'll look at your foot once I'm done," Tanya said still half shoved under her cabinets franticly looking for that damn med kit. Her voice was shaking pretty badly now, bad enough to make Wildwing worry.

"Did something happen? Who's hurt?" He asked standing there. "You're looking for the med kit right?"

Duke came out from under another cub board watching the duck. This wasn't something they should lye to him about. Hell look what it had done to the twerp of a kid in Tanya's spare room. From hearing what Wing had told them and the condition Dive was now in he pieced it together pretty easily.

"It was Dive, Man, you heard come into Tanya's apartment. Miya told him about what had happened and he flew off the deep end. He came here obviously and saw you, running outside he didn't get very far from the door. He was in the alleyway when we found him."

"Where is he now," Wildwing asked his voice kind of shaking. Normally Wildwing could take any abuse. When he was locked up at Dragonuas's cell for so long it didn't bother him so much.

But…

But when it came to his little brother Wildwing couldn't handle much. He thought about him more then his own safety most of the time. When the saurian's attacked Puckworld and killed both their parents Dive had nobody but Wing and Wildwing had nobody but Dive for family. It was the constant in this hell hole of a war. There would always be a brother standing beside them, helping them, protecting him.

Dive was way too young to be drug in this war. Then again Wildwing wasn't going to leave him behind at the mercy of what was left of Puckworld. If Nosedive was with Wildwing at least he could act like a shield for his brother protecting him from most of the horrors of this war.

"He's in your room," Duke said in an unreadable tone. It was one of the few times Wildwing wished he could see lately. Duke was good at masking his emotions in his voice. He was also very good at a stone face but something told Wildwing that if he could see Tanya now he could tell what was going on exactly.

"What did he do?" Wildwing now demanded. "Or was it a saurian attack?"

"I wish it was man," Duke sighed his voice faltering for a moment. If Duke's voice faltered…

"Can I go in there?" Wing finally asked.

"No." Duke said harshly. "I know you can't see him and all but me bringing him up here may have caused more damage then good. Dive shouldn't be allowed to move, to be even touched. The gashes on his arms are deep so there would be no point in you going in there at the moment."

"He's my BROTHER," Wildwing's voice rose. It had been a while since Duke had heard that come from him. "I have a right to at least SIT in the room he's in!"

"Fine, but there will be no point. Tanny here is going to keep him sedated till some of the smaller wounds have healed over a bit," Duke said. "That'll probably take a few days Wing. That's if we're lucky and he doesn't pass between here and there due to blood loss."

"FOUND IT!" Tanya screamed pulling herself out of the cub board she had been digging in only to rush at it and hit her head on the top of it. Quickly she ignored the pain and ran past Wildwing and into the room shutting the door behind her.

Turning from watching Tanya bolt to the room Duke looked back at Wildwing to see a very disturbing scene before him.

It took Duke a little while to get used to the fact Wildwing had no eyes where they should be. Instead of eyes were two holes. It looked worse before Tanya had gotten to him. She had cleaned it up and did her magic around the eyes to prepare him for the surgery that was to be happening within a week.

It was the fact he was crying with no eyes that bothered Duke so much. It was a sight Duke wished he'd never have to see. Wildwing wasn't the type to even break down at the hardest moments. He had been a natural born leader giving decisions that would be even tough for him so Duke thought he would probably never see the duck cry.

But he was no seeing him cry.

"This is my fault…" Wildwing muttered rubbing some of the tears away. "I should have tried harder to get out sooner. I should have protected him more. He was too young…"

"And what was the other option?" Duke asked. "Leave Dive on Puckworld? I was against Dive coming at the beginning but you had no choice. Going into the unknown with you was better then leaving him on Puckworld in the chaos alone. I don't think the boy would have been able to handle it back then like he can't seem to handle it now. The only difference is that NOW he has you here. And Wing man, you couldn't have helped your situation at all. None of us blame anybody with what is happening. This is war. With War nobody is going to come out of it unscathed. Dive is included with that, so are you. Stop blaming yourself for this. Tanya will work her magic and he'll come out of it alive. That's what we need to be thankful for right now."

Wildwing nodded slowly, the tears stopping.

"You are right. Sorry. You know…sometimes I wondered if you should have taken up the mask instead of me back then. You're older and seen a lot more then I had. Why hadn't you fought for it? I'm sure you wanted it." Wildwing asked trying to get his mind off of Nosedive at the moment. It was a question he had always wanted to ask Duke and thought about a lot being in the cell of Dragonuas's.

"A good leader has something to fight for Wing. I didn't back then. Back then Canard talked us all into being in this team and we all thought he was crazy but most of us figured we had to try something to end the war. I was along to try and loot his ship. I didn't care about the war, about the lives lost. I had nothing to fight for. Hell I was tempted to actually join Dragonuas if it kept on much longer. I was a Thief. I only thing I cared and fought for was myself." Duke began. "When Canard fell, your best friend mind you, you were the most driven out of all of us. You had something to fight for. Something to kill Dragonuas for. You had Dive to protect. Nobody else did. We were all strangers before Canard threw us together.

THAT is why I didn't fight for the mask. I knew better. The better leader between us would have been and will always be You Wildwing."

"You have something to fight for now Duke," Wildwing said.

The comment from Wildwing's mouth made Duke laugh. Wasn't that the truth?

"Yeah Mallory is worth every cut and scar I get," Duke said a grin in his voice. "But I still don't want to be the leader. I know lately I have been a partial leader to the team and that's fine but I don't want the burden. If I really wanted the mask now I could have just taken it. It's just a mask after all."

Wildwing nodded.

"And there is something else you have something to fight for I didn't mention." Duke said that grin still in his voice Wildwing noted.

"What?"

"Tannygirl," Duke whispered. "It may be a war Wildwing but we almost lost you once. Even in war we have to find ourselves. If we just lived for the war it would be a meaningless existence. It was something I learned watching Grin. That man can seem to find himself even in the most horrible situations."

"That he can," Wildwing laughed.

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"T…thank you," Miya said sitting in the back of the black car with Canard and the man was driving them because he knew where Tanya's apartment was in New York.

"I'd be just as lost as you," Canard said. "This is the first time I've actually seen this strange planet that Dragonuas pulled us to."

"Really?" Miya asked. "Dive never mentioned you in our talks…but he really didn't mention much too far into the past. I asked him how we got here exactly but…well he just told me that Dragonuas pulled them along for a ride when he was trying to escape. He didn't like talking much about the past. Seemed to horrible to think about for him."

"You seem to have a knack for picking up on things others would rather not discuss," Canard said watching her closely. Tanya's reports listed things about her and how she had believed the child and the story she had told her, though one thing bothered him about the report. The girl in front of him was still hiding something. It may not have been how she got here on Earth. It may not have been what Dragonuas had done to her but she was hiding her past as well as Dive was. It was probably why the girl was easily reading Dive.

"Yeah I guess I do," Said with a smile holding her wrist close. "So you know him?"

"Well knew him in passing," Canard said. "I was friends with his older brother Wildwing."

A look passed over her eyes that he had a hard time reading. She was thinking about something that she wasn't very proud of was what he was getting from her face.

"Did something happen to Wing?" Canard asked trying to think back on the reports. He knew that she had found him in bad condition and that they had been keeping it from Dive because his mental stability was unsure at the moment and everyone had agreed that though they didn't know how bad Dive really was that seeing Wing that way would have caused him to crash.

"…No…I just…I told Dive about Wildwing and he ran off. I haven't seen him since," She said quietly.

"You told him?" Canard said. "Why?"

"Look around you Canard," She said pointing out at the streets and skyline. "He needed to know. I just needed the courage to tell him. If I had a sibling I was desperately searching for and this happened, well I'd want to know too."

"You've been around Dive for a while now. Tell me. Do you think he was able to handle such information? The reason Duke asked you to not tell him is that he might do something rash and stupid." Canard then responded.

"Then it'll be on me," Miya said a serious look on her features.

"Who are you really?" Canard asked.

"..H..Huh?" Miya said. "I'm Miya. I'm sure those reports you read told you that much. I understand that they did a check on me and I'm sure Duke went and checked out my story with his sources to make sure I'm not some sorta traitor."

"No no no," Canard said still watching her closely. "Who ARE you? Before this war you were someone's daughter. The reports somehow left that information out. I noticed that and how odd it was. For being so bubbly and mouthy about all your likes and dislikes you haven't said a word about your parents in the reports."

The duck flinched visibly with that statement. Canard knew he had hit a nerve on this sorta cheerful duck holding her wrist and bleeding from her arm.

"Who are you then?" Miya said now an angry look on her face. "I do not wish to talk about that with someone I've just met."

"Have you talked to Dive about this? Does he know what your past is?" He then asked

"No. He's never blatantly asked either," She said. "I think he picks up on the fact I don't want to talk about it either."

"You know you look oddly familiar…" Canard then mentioned noticing how her eyes were shaped and her beak was. It reminded him of…something in his past. It was something he definitely had seen. What was it and why did it seem important? He'd have to figure this one out on his own since the girl was hell bent on not telling him. "Fine, I guess everyone has something in their past they'd rather not discuss. I am sorry for bringing it up."

"Thank you," Miya said her face softened a little. "I can say this though comfortably, what I wish not to say doesn't matter anyway. If I did say what it was it probably wouldn't make much of a difference but it could as well."

Canard nodded dropping the argument with the girl watching the car stop. If it didn't matter all that much then she could have just told him.

So why?

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Wiping her brow she looked at her handy work on his arms. Some of them she had to stitch up because they were too big but other then that her work looked clean. All she could do is stare at the sleeping 22 year old duck. It bothered her a lot that she had to treat him for wounds he did himself. Not only wounds he did to himself but wounds he did to himself with the purpose of ending it all. It didn't seem like Dive at all. The dive that had grown up with them was a goofy fun loving duck who would much rather find a way to skip out of Phil's plans then do this to himself.

The Dive of four years ago would have tried to talk someone out of doing this same thing.

"Dive…" Tanya muttered touching the boys head. "I know that we've all been selfish and when Wing disappeared we probably put you in a spot you didn't deserve to be in. I…I just didn't know what to do…I don't think nobody did. We looked to you because you were Wildwing's little brother. Because the Nosedive that we hung out with before then would ease our troubles no matter what the pain it was. We didn't see…no let me correct that…we didn't WANT to see what was really going on with you because we had to much to deal with ourselves." She spoke that quietly more to herself then to the duck laying there because she knew he'd be out for quit a while and the fact that Duke had been right. Nosedive would have to stay asleep for a few days to give his body some time to recover. A lot of those wounds shouldn't be moving anyway.

Glancing up at his face she noticed how pale he really was and how thin he had become since she had really looked at him last.

Damn it.

"TANYA!" Duke's frantic voice made her jump. Glancing up she stood up and walked over to the door opening it.

"What is it?" She asked looking over toward the door to see Miya standing there with one of her scientists under her.

What Duke wasn't frantic about wasn't either of those two. It was the orange duck standing beside those two.

"…I…It worked?" She exclaimed as her feelings of dread and remorse were pushed off to see Canard standing there in the flesh and blood once more.

"That it did Tanya. I always knew that getting you on the team back in Puckworld was a good idea." He smiled at her. "Thank you."

The tears Tanya had been fighting the past two hours finally broke loose as she walked over there and hugged their long lost comrade in her arms.

"…o…of all the times…" She wept looking toward Duke and Wildwing. "I guess it is true what Grin used to say…when ever God does something bad he always does something good to counteract it."

"Bad?" Miya this time chimed in. "What happened?"

"Dive, when you told him, well he lost it," Duke explained once more. "He's unconscious in the room trying to recover from his self inflicted injuries."

"…Self…inflicted…?" Miya said her one hand coming up in horror. "…He told me he wouldn't do that anymore! He…told…me…"

When Duke heard that he looked in shock at Miya. "He tried this before?" He exclaimed which just caused her to nod franticly as tears came down her face.

"Well…it was…just a few…hours ago…" Miya cried. "I didn't have time to tell anyone!"

"What about your hand?" Tanya said this time being a little more forceful then she should have toward Miya's broken hand. This caused Miya to scream.

"These look self inflicted to!" Tanya said her joy now ebbing away fast.

"It's not what you think!" Miya said pulling her hand away. "…I…I know magic ok!"

"Yeah right," Canard sighed getting tired of the lies and games with this girl. "If you're suicidal don't go lying about it."

"No really watch!" Miya said grabbing his arm and a dim light began to surround her arms and his arm.

Canard flinched as his arm began to grow in pain. Blinking he glanced down at his arms now, one of them swollen and what looked to be a fracture and all around them were the cuts that he had studied on Miya while in the car.

It was true.

Duke also watched it in shock. It had been a while since he had come across a magic using duck not just because of the fact there were no other ducks around Earth but because magic was in old blood and old blood stuck with old blood.

And during the first wave of attacks the saurians took out ALL the old blood.

Well, he thought dryly, not all of the old blood. Miya survived.

"Take it back! Take it back!" Canard grumbled. Nodding Miya put her hands back up there and the cuts and broken arm transferred back to her. "Damn that hurt. How can you handle that?"

"I just have to," Miya said. "These cuts are Dives. I took them from him when I found him under the rubble. He told me he wouldn't do that again when he realized what I had done. I…I guess you guys were right with your assumption that Dive couldn't handle seeing Wing."

"Well I didn't know exactly how he'd react sweetheart," Duke said. "I didn't expect this though."

"Sadly none of us did," Tanya sighed. "I was starting to figure things out but…"

"Yeah," Wildwing sighed. "Tanya is it alright that I go sit with Dive now?"

"Yeah, there is a chair next to his bed. You'll be able to find it pretty easily." Tanya said.

With that the quiet Wildwing headed toward his room to sit with his brother.

"Now Miya, how about I fix that arm up for you?" Tanya asked.

"Please?" Miya said.

Tanya quickly left to get the med kit in the room with Wing and Dive and came back bringing her to her living room leaving Canard and Duke in the kitchen by themselves.

"I wish you had come at a better time," Duke finally broke the silence. "A good time when we could have properly celebrate you finally returning to us. Everything seems so chaotic at the moment to even be able to breath."

Canard just gave a light chuckle to the statement then nodding. "We'll have time to do that after everything is in the clear and settled with this."

"Of course," Duke responded.

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Wow I let this chapter sit a while. I had it written and what not for a long while. I'm really really sorry for the delay in updates. You see I made mention in the chapter previously that I had it nearly completed (and I sorta did) but when I got to a pivotal moment in the story it never felt right to me so I walked away for a bit. Today while I was at work I came to an idea that may work with how I want things to play out with this story. I'd tell you more but it'd be spoiling it for all of you!

Thanks for sticking with me and my sparatic updates. Hopefully I'll get the final 2-3 chapters out quickly since I've got an idea that I seem to like worked out.

Please review before you go too if you don't mind :3.


	11. Chapter 10: The Lie

_We where innocent_

**Chapter 10: The Lie**

Drifting in and out of sleeping Dive remembered very little. Tanya there was watching him, probably cleaning his wounds. It didn't much matter anyway. They really thought he was a horrible duck, someone that was weak.

Ok so he was weak, but that was beside the point. Why should he try and live to save people who didn't much care for him…

Though something inside Dive told him that they did care for him and were worried sick. He didn't understand himself anymore…

Turning over he opened an eye seeing a dark window with a figure sitting next to it looking outside. The back of the head and the hair told him it was Miya. So she had gotten were ever they ended up being, probably Tanya's apartment since his was destroyed.

A feeling of guilt and comfort washed over him as he laid there looking at her back. Guilt because he had left her and the comfort...

Well probably because she was there, safe. He had been stupid leaving her at the store like that especially if Dragonuas was searching for her. There didn't seem to be anger toward her. It wasn't like she was responsible for any of this. She was just an innocent by standard in his fit, and his depression.

"I see you're awake," Her calm voice said as she turned from the window in her chair and gazed at him. Her arm bandaged and hanging on a sling. "It was my turn to watch over you and was hoping you would wake up. Something tells me that if you woke up when Duke or the others was watching over you you'd probably be angry or something." She giggled at the end of the statement.

It was true enough. Hell he'd be madder at her if it wasn't for the fact he knew she hadn't done it to keep him out of the loop totally and had come clean about it when she probably thought Wing could be dead and was worried about HIS feelings and how he would react.

"I'm going to go get Wildwing for you. I think you two should talk," She said stopping at the foot of the bed a moment as he groggily nodded at her and she passed through the open door quietly leaving him to his thoughts.

His arms which felt bandaged and tied down stung at his sides told him he was indeed alive and growing more awake with each passing moment. Part of him hated the fact that he really didn't know himself anymore. Part of him thought back to when they played hockey in Anaheim and him hanging out with Thrash and Mookie. Honestly he missed those times a lot more then he ever realized as he stared up at the ceiling listening to the quiet clanks and hops of what was Wildwing heading toward the bedroom. He didn't have to gaze over at the door to know his brother was now in it. The shadow of his body fell over the bed. He was always going to be the bigger duck out of the two, even in the state he was in.

"Miya told me you were finally awake." Wildwing's voice started as he then began to feel around for the chair that was to his right and hop on over toward it. "Tanya had stopped sedating you last night telling us it would take a while for the affects to wear off and you to wake up."

He would have nodded in agreement at Wildwing but Nosedive already knew that his brother was blind because of this war so instead he gave a muffled 'yeah' so Wildwing knew that he was indeed awake.

Years had passed since they really sat like this between them and there was so much Nosedive wanted to say or do to his older brother. How he had dreamed of the day that Wildwing would be back and the team would be whole again.

Funny how 'whole' takes on a whole other meaning in the circumstances.

"I had a lot of time to think in that cell in Dragonuas's ship," Wildwing began. "About how I shouldn't have drug you into a war so young. About how MYSELF I shouldn't have been in this war at the age I was too."

"It was either take me Wing or leave me behind in what was left of Puckworld. If the roles had been reversed I would have done the same thing," Dive muttered quietly. "Not once did I regret getting in that ship behind you and fighting my way on board against Duke and Canard's protests. You were all that I had left…" His voice breaking as he stopped that sentence. When he had muttered it he realized even to this day, even through all the shit that was thrown at him and that he had to live through, he STILL believed that.

Wildwing stared on blinking at the wall as he listened to Dive.

"The war may have taken a lot from us Dive but it also gave us something in return," said Wildwing. "I wouldn't call our 'teammates' just teammates anymore. I missed you most of all in that cell but I also missed Tanya, Duke, Grin, Mallory, and even thought about Canard from time to time. We were created as a team but I believe now I'd consider all of us family more then anything. It was what made things bearable in there and gave me hope that I'd see the light of day again."

As Wildwing spoke the others began to enter the room one by one listening to him. Even big old Grin who had to walk in sideways because of the door size (who looked a little worn for wear) came and stood by the window. Everyone he had come to Earth with now stood in the room, Canard beside Wing, Tanya sitting next to Wing on the bed between his feet and the edge, Mallory next to Duke right in front of him and then grin.

The only person who was missing would be Miya but Dive realized that she probably figured this was something best left with them and was giving them space to say what was to be said.

"Duke told me earlier that he gave the mask to me when Canard fell because I would be the best leader. Honestly I don't see that logic now but I'll accept what Duke says for now. I came to this planet on a mission to take revenge upon the saurians for Puckworld, for our families, for Canard, and to protect you. I let it blind me completely," And oddly enough Wildwing chuckled with that a little at the irony of what he just said.

"I think what Wildwing is getting at is that if one lives for War then what's left of that one after is nothing," Grin quietly muttered.

"Exactly," Canard then said. "I fell into that same trap before I fell into limbo. All I wanted was to end the war, that was it. I didn't care who or what I went through as long as it ended the war."

"And yet," Wildwing broke in. "In that cell I realized I let the saurian's win by doing one major thing."

Nosedive didn't quite understand what was trying to be said.

"Dragonuas hasn't won yet," Nosedive muttered in confusion. If he had, how long had he been asleep exactly?

"The war he hasn't won on the grander scale," Wildwing answered. "But when we started living for the war, for revenge, we lost. You were always so good at telling us that before Thrash and Mookie passed. I think that was a turning point for you Dive and we should have seen in then."

"What Wildwing is trying to tell you Dive," Mallory then broke in seeing Wildwing getting upset, "Is that as a team, no as a family I guess as Wing put it earlier when we discussed this, that we're stepping away from the war for a bit."

That was the last thing Nosedive expected to hear from any of them! With Dragonuas running about everyone was still in danger!

"We can't…" He croaked almost helplessly at Mallory. "If we don't fight…"

"The humans will, and it won't be entirely stepping out," Duke said in his thick accent. "We'll advise and help here and there but for right now we all agree it is best we step away from this all. The war with Dragonuas has become what we've been living for, what we're either running to or running from. That is not the way to live kid."

"One has to know thy self before thy enemy," Grin then broke in.

All this was making the already hurting Nosedive's head real. Was it ok for them to step away from a war that they brought? Was it ok to not want to fight against Dragonuas? Was it selfish?

"Ok now what?" Dive's voice cracked as he was loosing his footing again though this time it wasn't suicidal. For the past 5 years he had let the war drive him, he had let the idea of revenge be what got him through the day, and now here he was being told he COULDN'T live that way anymore.

…What was he suppose to do? It honestly scared him more then meeting Dragonuas in a dark alleyway. He was definitely broken, hurt, and scared. He didn't know himself anymore. The dive of 5 years ago wasn't the dive strapped to a bed with all his teammates, no, family looking at him with sad eyes. Revenge was simple and easy to do!

..not this!

"I've called the old coot Phil," Wildwing began. "The Pond still sits empty with no buyers. Dragonuas won the war when we closed and sold the Pond so we're going to buy it back and try and get the team name back. Phil was ecstatic, muttering how his cash cow came back."

"So much has changed," Dive tried to reason. "At LEAST two of us here aren't in any shape, nor will ever be in any shape to play professional human hockey again.

"I'll be a full time coach," Wildwing said. "I was the captain before; I'll be a coach now. Once Tanya gets me a new set of eyes and a leg I'll be good enough to skate at least again and bark orders again." He chuckled a little at that.

"And God will lead me to were I should be," Grin said.

"If they accept Tanya's arm being alright with the rules, Canard and Miya can fill Grin and my spots so we have a full team again for hockey and if not we'll draft someone in," Wildwing added.

So during all this war, the plan was to go back and play hockey, Nosedive thought. Something about it made him start laughing. He didn't know why but he couldn't stop laughing at it. He began to laugh so hard it brought tears to his face. There was no recollection of the last time he laughed till he cried had been, but it felt good.

Glancing up after he had caught his breath and calmed down a bit he smiled, a genuine smile. Honestly the thought of it all still scared the living daylights out of him but when one is this low there really is only one way to go.

And that was up and even Dive acknowledged that.

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Sitting on the ledge of the top of the building Tanya's apartment Miya quietly looked out at the chaotic city line. In her hand was the golden relic of a legacy gone by that Duke had wondered in with a few days ago during Nosedive's healing sleep. She had left the apartment with two goals in mind, one of them being giving them some alone time to talk with Dive without her, a semi outsider, present. She only knew him for so long so her words probably wouldn't have near the affect that was needed on the blonde then the others. Miya knew when she should step out and hopefully that little intervention Wildwing spoke of would get Nosedive the help he needed.

"I hope you're not planning to jump," A heavy thick accent came from behind her. Turning her head Miya saw Duke, knowing of course by his voice alone, standing by the door.

"Nah," She said quietly scooting back from the ledge so Duke would be more at ease. With what happened to Nosedive everyone was a little on edge about things like that, and justifiably so. "Just taking in the view and thinking."

"About what?" Duke asked closing the gap between them in a few quick strides.

"My past, the present, and of course the future, it seems to be a hot topic right now with the people I'm staying with," Miya joked a bit fettling around with the mask in her hands.

"You are considered apart of the plan you know," Duke said kneeling down and sitting next to her. "We couldn't forget you, even if you are fairly new to the team."

"I know," Miya responded. "And I'm not thinking about running away or anything. I'm happy with you guys and can't wait to get to know you guys more."

"Then what is it darling," Duke said his eyes falling on the mask she was holding. "And I am quite curious why you've decided for companionship you brought the mask up here. Most normal ducks would have probably brought a blanket or flashlight."

"Me, normal? NEVA!" She exclaimed causing a bit of a delayed giggle between them two.

"You're a DuCaine, aren't yah darling?" Duke blatantly asked after a long pause. It took till just now for Duke to piece together the clues he had gotten around her. Though mind you he was grasping at straws with so little evidence to point to what he came to the conclusion of: her being of old blood, Dragonuas locking her up, and the fact she was sitting with the golden mask thinking about life.

"The last and only," Miya surprising responded looking at the mask and bringing it up to her face as if to have a staring contest with it. "You being who you are I won't ask how you figured it out. I don't talk at all about my family."

"I know and that was a clue in itself," Duke said.

"You know my great great grandfather didn't want to save the world that day?" She muttered her eyes not breaking from the mask. "All he wanted was to protect his wife and newly born son from the saurian's and give them a chance at freedom."

"How simple things like that get skewered to fit an idle." Duke smirked.

"I guess it's just nature to want to find heroes," Miya muttered setting the mask down on the ground. "If they cannot be found, then they're created."

"You mean of the DuCaine story?" Duke responded as Miya walked a little ways a way from him and was digging in a darkened area by a small shed behind him.

"I guess more of a Legacy," Miya responded back. "Drake DuCaine is viewed as a hero and treated almost like a god on Puckworld but those who knew the real Drake knew that wasn't the case. I guess what I'm trying to say is that my great great grandfathers legacy wasn't to be a hero, but he did things out of love and it's sad that it gets lost with the legend."

"A legacy of love instead of a legacy of bravery," Duke muttered watching her from the corner of his eye. "What are you doing darlin over there?"

"Putting an end to a false legacy," Miya said coming back with something in her hand.

A fairly large metal pipe.

"You really want to do that? We could still use it you know," Duke said scooting back from the mask.

"Anything Tanya makes will be x10 more powerful then this," Miya laughed a little. "Besides, you want to know the real real reason behind the golden mask?"

"Well I'm always into learning new things darlin, so inform me."

"My grandfather had bad eyesight," Miya said poking the mask with her pipe. "It was a risk to go into a battle with glasses made out of glass in case they shattered and took an eye out with it. There was someone like Tanya on my grandfather's team who thought up a way to make it a mask so he could see and not run the risk of self injury." She chuckled a little. "BUT the teammate being like Tanya had to take it a few steps further then just an oversized prescription mask and that is how it was born."

Now that wasn't something in the history books, Duke thought laughing a little. The golden mask just a giant prescription mask. It didn't make the story sound very good otherwise.

"The fact that it exists with those false and skewed stories behind it is making it a burden on everyone here," Miya concluded.

"You could just tell them the truth behind it."

"I…I really don't want to tell people my heritage if I don't have to," Miya said. "Much like Dive, it is a burden to those born under that name. Everyone around you expects great things from you. When I failed at basic offensive magic one of my aunts threw a hissy fit proclaiming I was a bastard child and my mother had cheated on my father….It was something I could never live down, even when my mother handed her dna documents proving my birth."

"..Then go ahead darlin, it's just me and the sky above as your witness."

"Thank you," Miya said quietly lifting the metal pipe above her head.

With the crashes and sparks of a broken legacy ringing the air Miya hoped that the healing could officially begin…

…for all of them.

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This was the chapter that stalled me into 2 years of non writing. At first I had Miya telling Dive her heritage to help him sorta understand he's not alone, and that trying to act and take up a mantle of a hero created would be née impossible.

But I thought today of Wildwing, the instrumental person in what really started dives break down being the one to step in would be better.

I also didn't want dive to be totally cured. Believe me he isn't. I wanted to convey in this chapter a switch like moment where dive realizes that things as they are can't go on for any longer but he doesn't know where to begin BUT he wants that beginning.

Coming back from suicide and where Dive was standing can't happen just with a talk, or with an 'ooh ok I'm better nowz!' moment and to try and do that would belittle all he had gone through and where he was.

Oh yes, Miya taking out the mask was something I thought of today. This whole story is named the DuCaine Legacy because of the idea of the fact the legacy that everyone knows and remembers is a lie. Nobody could live up to a lie and yet here were a bunch of ducks trying. The mask had become a symbol of things they were not, were striving to be, and could never be since they were built on a lie. Miya realized this and decided the best course of action for it would be to destroy the mask.

There will be 1-2 more chapters left (an epilogue of sorts). Not sure how I'm totally going to do this but it'll be a lot easier then nosedive's switch moment.

Also in the next 1-2 chapters I will explain what exactly happened to Grin and how he got there the way he did so that IS coming :D

Please review before you go and as always thanks for taking the time to read one of my stories.


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